Chapter 24:  Down In Hondo

"We are steadily asked about the age at which to teach young people to shoot. The answer to this obviously depends upon the particular individual; not only his physical maturity but his desire. Apart from these considerations, however, I think it important to understand that it is the duty of the father to teach the son to shoot. Before the young man leaves home, there are certain things he should know and certain skills he should acquire, apart from any state-sponsored activity. Certainly the youngster should be taught to swim, strongly and safely, at distance. And young people of either sex should be taught to drive a motor vehicle, and if at all possible, how to fly a light airplane. I believe a youngster should be taught the rudiments of hand-to-hand combat, unarmed, together with basic survival skills. The list is long, but it is a parent's duty to make sure that the child does not go forth into the world helpless in the face of its perils. Shooting, of course, is our business, and shooting should not be left up to the state." - The Late Col. Jeff Cooper

The leader of the Hondo expedition was Major Alan Brennan, a quiet man who was the son of a retired Air Force Colonel.  Brennan’s leadership was competent but very laid back:  He made it clear that he expected his squadron members to be punctual for all meetings, and completely sober before each scheduled mission. He summed up his guidance by stating simply: “We’ve got excellent maintenance NCOs, and the civilian techs know the gear inside and out.  Stand back and let them do their jobs.  Just be at the briefings and be on flight line on time. ‘Kick the tire, light the fire’, and come home safe.”

Brennan, who had recently been married, was fascinated by pre-Columbian history, and spent a lot of his time off in a rented jeep, wandering around ancient ruins, taking pictures. Other than on his mission days, Doyle rarely saw him.

The Air Force terminated its tactical reconnaissance program for F-16s in 1993, with plans to shift most of those missions to UAVs.  But there was an interim program using US Navy-developed Tactical Aerial Reconnaissance Pod System (TARPS) mounted on F-16s.  Doyle’s squadron was one of the two fighter squadrons that got tapped for this “strap-on recon” test program, which only lasted 18 months.  While technically a success, from an operational and logistics standpoint, the results were mixed.  And since UAV technology was meanwhile maturing rapidly, the decision was made to mothball the TARPs pods and support gear.  It was during the TARPS test program that Ian Doyle was part of the Hondo Expedition.

By the time that the USAF got involved, the TARPs pods were a “well-matured technology”. Most of the technical support was supplied by civilian contractors from Grumman, the company that had originally developed the system. The 17-foot, 1,850-pound pods were essentially a “strap on” system, adaptable to many types of aircraft.  They could be mounted on standard hard points.  First developed for Navy F-14s and Marine Corps F/A-18s, the TARPS pods were, as one of the Grumman camera technicians put it: “fool proof and pilot proof, but then, I repeat myself.”

The expedition included four F-16s--two for missions, and two as spares—four mission pilots, and a C-130 to shuttle the support crew and umpteen spare parts—both for the planes and for the TARPS pods.  The TDY rotation was five months, making it just short of the six month threshold for a PCS.  This made the personnel paperwork easier, and reduced the overall cost of the program. 

All of the pilots were housed at the “White House” (La Casa Blanca), the guest quarters in Tegucigalpa which was run by the American embassy, in Colonia Loma Linda Norte district, on La Avenida FAO. The White House was a gathering place of myth and legend. It served as the catch-all for visiting company-grade military officers, CIA types on temporary assignment, and assorted contractors on government business. The atmosphere was jovial and there were even some fraternity-style bashes on weekends. The CIA officers called it a “safe house”, but its presence was hardly clandestine. Even the local newspaper mentioned it from time to time—often by its nicknames “Rick's Café Américain” or “Rick’s Place”, in honor of the Humphrey Bogart movie Casablanca.

Junior officers at La Casa Blanca were expected to share rooms. Ian Doyle’s roommate was Bryson Pitcher, an Air Force Intelligence First Lieutenant, who was permanent party with the Intel Cell at the American embassy.

Shortly after meeting Pitcher, Ian Doyle summed up The Expedition to him: “It’s an intense assignment, but a good one.  I’ll fly three, maybe four missions a week, all in daylight hours, and they are just six hours each. Other than some intel briefing dog and pony shows once every 10 or 12 days either here or down at Soto Cano, I get all the rest of my days off, to hike, swim, and see the sights. My only regret is that it’s only a five month TDY.  I wish it were a couple of years, to really soak up the local culture.”

Bryson has his curiosity piqued.  He asked: “Well, what are you doing, exactly?  This is the first time I’ve seen F-16s in Hondo. We haven’t heard squat about it, even in the Intel shop.”

“I could tell you, but then I’d have to shoot you.”

Bryson snorted.

Ian grinned, and said: “Just kidding. What’s your clearance?”

“TS-SBI, with a bunch of funny little letters after that, for compartments that I can’t tell you about.”

“Well, what do you do here Bryson, in a nutshell?”

“I task and receive reports from a bunch of over-educated NCOs, and we analyze them for liaison with the Honduran government, and for an un-specified strategic mission.”

“Stuff from aircraft?,”  Doyle asked.

“Nope.  Stuff from ahh… Non-air breathing platforms.”

“Ahhh, gotcha.”  Hearing the euphemism for spy satellites made in clear to Doyle that he could ask no further questions.

Okay, well, then I guess I can certainly talk about the basics, even though you’re in the strategic world, while my bailiwick is mostly tactical.  A little cross-over, I suppose.  You’ll probably get brief in a week or two, anyway.”

Bryson nodded.

Ian looked up at the slowly-rotating ceiling fan and asked: “Are you familiar with a system called TARPS?”

“Sure—it’s the Navy’s pod-mounted photo recon system. It’s pretty idiot-proof, as long as they remember to hook up the external power and use a squirt of Windex before they takeoff.”

“That’s the one. Were going to be using F-16s with TARPS pods flying recon over Colombia, keeping track of the, ahem, ‘opposition’s’ troop movements.  Meanwhile there are some Army Intelligence guys, using a system called Guardrail, flying out of Panama, to monitor the FARC’s radio transmissions. You piece all that intel together, along with what you guys up in “Echelons Above Reality” provide, and that gives a pretty complete picture for the theater command, most of which—after its properly sanitized—can get shared with the host country.”

Doyle sat up and turned to look at Pitcher, and continued; “It’s pretty straightforward stick and rudder stuff.  I just follow the pre-programmed flight profiles:  Fly to these coordinates, spiral down to this altitude and assume this heading and fly straight and level for x minutes until you at these coordinates, then turn to this heading, and fly x minutes, then climb out, suck some gas at a tanker, and return to base.”

Pitcher chided: “Ha!  One of the new UAVs could probably handle that, from a lot closer-in than Hondo.”

“No kidding. I’ve been told that it was more political than anything else, to show support for the Colombian and Honduran governments—you know, “show the flag.”  So they didn’t want just a “man in the loop”, but an actual “man on the stick.”  For reasons of physical security on the ground, they couldn’t base our planes in-country in Colombia, so they decided to base us at Tegucigalpa. 

“Wouldn’t it be safer for the planes to be at Soto Cano.”

“Yes, but El Presidente likes F-16s, so he insisted that since this is just a five month gig that we be here in the capitol, rather than at Soto Cano. I think he’s hoping to get a ‘dollar ride’ in a D-model.”

“Do you have any two-seaters down here?”

“No, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see that magically get added to scope of the mission.”

Bryson summarized: “So basing at Colombia was out, and the political fix was in for Tegucigalpa. Better for you, anyway.  At Soto Cano, you’ d be living in some corrugated steel hooch with no running water.”

“Yeah, It would be muy malo  to have some FARC dude blow up a couple of F-16s on the ramp. Falcons were $19 million per copy, back when the last ones rolled off the assembly line. Now that production has shut down, the airframes are basically irreplaceable.  It would be very bad P.R. if we lost one.”

“So, you poor baby! You have three or four days a week on your hands for the next five months to chase skirts and sip Port Royal beer.  Don’t worry, I’ll tell you all the best places to go, and I have friends with cars that can take you there.”

“I’m not much of skirt chaser. You see I believe in courting ladies, not dating them.  But I have been known to enjoy a good beer.”

“In moderation, no doubt.”

Doyle echoed, “Yes, exactly: in moderation.”

Bryson, punched his shoulder.  “I think you’re gonna have a blast here.”

Doyle’s plans for the next five months changed radically the next day, when he heard what he later called “the voice of angel”, as he came in for a landing approach after a 40 minute operational test flight, with the newly-fitted TARPS pod. The voice on the radio from the control tower sounded enchanting, obviously that of a young woman.  Soon after hitting the tarmac, he asked the liaison crew chief who the voice belonged to. The E-7 replied:  “Oh, that’s Blanca Araneta. But I’ve gotta warn you: She’s single, maybe 21 or 22, and she’s a absolute doll. But she’s made of pure unobtanium. Many before you have tried and failed, young Jedi.”

Doyle immediately took that as a challenge.  He got his first glimpse of the young woman as he loitered outside the control tower during the evening shift change. He spotted Blanca Araneta just as she stepped into her car—a battered old Mercedes station wagon. Ian was surprised to see that, having heard she was from a wealthy family. She drove away before he had the chance to approach her and introduce himself.  She was indeed a beautiful woman, with expressive large eyes, a beautifully symmetrical face, and full lips. Her shoulder-length black hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Seeing her, Ian Doyle was smitten.

Ian immediately starting gathering intelligence, and planning a strategy. He first learned that Blanca was from a wealthy family that lived about an hour’s drive north of the air base, and that her father was a prominent mining engineer and investor. After much prying with other members of the control tower staff, Doyle found out that Blanca Araneta was a recent graduate of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras and was a licensed private pilot. To Ian this meant bonus points: finding a woman with whom he could talk aviation and not have her eyes glaze over.  She still lived in an apartment near the University.

Further inquiries garnered the married name of her college roommate: Consuela Dalgon, a linguistics major who now taught public school, living not too far from the airport.  Blanca still had a close friendship with Dalgon. After buying a few more beers, he was given Dalgon’s phone number. That same evening, Ian phoned her, explaining that he was TDY and was looking for a Spanish tutor.  Dalgon immediately answered affirmatively, explaining that she had married another recent graduate who was just getting started as a management trainee, so she could use the extra money. 

Ian’s lessons began the next Saturday, at the Dalgons’ apartment. Not only did he get a thorough immersion course in Spanish, but he also began to pick up tidbits about the mysterious Señorita Blanca Araneta.

He learned that Blanca was from a wealthy family in Talanga.  Her father, Arturo Araneta y Vasquez, was a semi-retired mining engineer, and a former member of the Honduran Olympic tennis team.

Consuela confided to Ian that Blanca had told her that she hated tennis. This was because she had been forced to take tennis lessons from an early age.  Doyle was also told that Blanca loved swimming, and aerobatic flying. He was also told that Blanca read and wrote English much better than she spoke it.

At his next Spanish tutoring session, he found out that Blanca loved Almond Roca candy. She also liked modern flamenco music--what she called “that folky jazz sound”.  She especially liked the Gipsy Kings, Armik, Paco de Lucia, and Ottmar Liebert.  Curious, Doyle bought several CDs at the local record store, and was instantly hooked. As he listened to this music he often daydreamed about Blanca, picturing her dancing in a traditional flamenco dress.

Ian met Blanca for the first time at the Plaza San Martin Hotel in Tegucigalpa.  Consuela and Blanca often went to the hotel to swim.  They had started going while they were in college.  Though the pool was  normally reserved for hotel guests, the hotel manager quietly let it be known that pretty college girls of good moral character were welcome to come swim at the pool as often as they’d like, just to provide some eye candy for the visiting businessmen. To the girls, it was a perfect arrangement. The hotel provided a safe place to park, and a safe place to swim. The only downside was that they often got to practice how to politely brush off the occasional lovelorn or just plain lusty business travelers.  Only the Japanese ones took pictures.

During his third evening lesson with Consuela, she and her husband Pablo invited Ian to come with them for a swim, following the next Saturday lesson.  Not wishing to be obvious, Ian didn’t ask if Blanca might be meeting them there, but he thought the chances were good.

At the Tegucigalpa. Multiplaza, Ian picked out a new swim suit—opting for the long “surfer suit” look--a dark beach towel, a lightweight windbreaker, and a pair of the best-quality leather huarache sandals that they sold.

o  o  o

A half hour after their swim session began, Ian emerged from the pool after a set of laps. He was thrilled to see Blanca Araneta had arrived, and was sitting on a lounge chair, chatting with Consuela.

Toweling himself dry, he walked toward them, doing his best to look nonchalant.  Consuela introduced him to Blanca, in Spanish. Señora Dalgon was, after all, strict believer in true Immersion Spanish.

Ignoring Consuela’s cue, Blanca switched to English.

“A pleasure to be meeting you, E-an.”

Hearing the cute way she pronounced his name—more like “Eon” than “Ian”--made him just melt.

Avoiding the open chair next to Blanca, he sat down on the lounge that was beyond Consuela’s and Pablo’s --he thought it best to talk to Blanca at first from a longer distance, rather than seem overly anxious, or intrusive of her space.

Speaking to Blanca, over the top of Consuela’s back, Ian said: “Señorita Araneta, I have heard your voice before, from the control tower.  I usually fly ‘Falcon 1-2-4’, and you’ve probably heard my callsign, ‘Subgunner’.”

“Oh, yes, I know your callsign.”

Doyle replied: “Yes, that me. I always wanted to put a face to your name.  I must say, you have a pretty voice, and a very pretty face to go with it.”

Blanca just smiled and laughed politely. 

Again trying to seem nonchalant, Ian added: “Well, enjoy your swim”, and he reclined on an unoccupied lounge chair and put on his sunglasses. Laying there, he wondered if he had botched the introduction.  His mind was racing.  He felt very self-conscious, and oh-so pale skinned, among so many people with olive complexions. He dare not speak.  Silently, he recited to himself Proverbs 17:28: “Even a fool is counted wise, when he holds his peace. When he shuts his lips he is considered perceptive.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Blanca stand up and whip off the ankle-length swimming skirt-wrap that she had been wearing. She tossed it on top of her flight bag.  He noticed that she carried that bag everywhere. Beneath, she was wearing what by modern standards was a very conservative one-piece swimsuit with an integral skirt, but it couldn’t hide her traffic-stopping figure.  Ian Doyle gulped and whispered to himself: “Ay, ay, ay”.

Blanca spent almost 15 minutes in the pool, swimming lap after lap.  After she got out and returned to her chair, Ian rose, smiled, and took his own turn in the pool, swimming in a medley of strokes for about 10 minutes.  He thought that at this stage, it was best to seem slightly stand-offish and more interested in swimming than in chatting her up.

After he climbed up the pool’s ladder, he could see that Consuela and Blanca had turned on their chairs, and were applying sun screen to each-other’s noses.  Ian again toweled, but just slightly, and returned to his chaise, and put on his sunglasses.

Consuela asked, “Bloqueador de sol, Ian?”

He answered: “Si, muchas gracias por su amabilidad, señora”, and raised his hands as if ready to catch the bottle.”

But instead of tossing the bottle, Consuela pivoted to hand him the bottle directly.  Leaning forward, she whispered, “She has been very curious about you.”

Ian slathered the waterproof sun-block on, explaining: “With my skin, I don’t tan, I just burn. I’m feeling a little too white to fit in here.”

As Ian handed the bottle back to Consuela, Blanca said matter-of-factly: “You know, here in our country, many people would be jealous of your fair skin. The more fair, the more aristocratic.”

Doyle nodded, and said simply, “Oh.”  He realized that he had lot to learn about Honduras.

Blanca eyed Doyle for a minute, and speaking over Consuela’s back, asked, “Has Consuela been talking about me, to you?”

“A little.”  Disarmingly, he added, “I also told her about my college roommate.”

“So what did she say?”

“Something about your father, su papa, that he was un experto de tenis’.”

“Not actually a champion.  He was an bronze medaler--I mean medalist, in doubles of tennis.”

She cocked her head and asked with a hopeful lilt to her voice, “Do you like tennis?”

“I’ve played the game, but you know, I never really liked it. No le gusto el tenis.  It is just a whole lot of sweating, just to hit a ball back and forth, back and forth.  And it’s kind of an aggravating game. I found it a little too competitive: Even if you practice a lot and hit the ball just right, there is always someone who can hit it just a little bit better, or who is just a little bit faster, and they can ace you out.  So, no offense, but it’s not for me.  If I want to practice my hand-to-eye coordination, I’d rather be in a flight simulator, or better yet, up in the air, formation flying or doing aerobatics.”

Blanca smiled.  “Aerobatics?”

“Oh yeah. The F-16 is built for it—well, with a big turning radius that is.  Lot’s of power, great handling.  The controls are a dream.  Incredibly responsive.”

“Ay, that sounds wonderful.”

Consuela jumped in: “Ian, you should show Blanca those videos you shot from the back seat, that you showed me and Pablo.”

“Si, señora, yo estoy feliz... uh…” At a loss for the right words in Spanish, he finished:  “…to do so.”  After a moment, he added, “That video may make you dizzy to watch, and there is not much narration, just me and the pilot grunting, you know, tightening our abdominal muscles, doing our best to pull the gees.”

“No, it won’t make me dizzy!”, Blanca said. She then just smiled, nodded dismissively, and lay back down, putting on sunglasses, and pulling her sun hat over her head.  But Doyle noticed that she was looking in his direction.  With her large dark sunglasses, he couldn’t be sure if she was sleeping, or staring at him.  He was having trouble reading her.  Was she genuinely interested, or just being polite and properly social? He decided that it was best to just give her more of the ‘silence and sunbathing treatment.’  He reached down and pulled out his Sony Discman portable CD-player and put the headphones on.  He closed his eyes and got lost in the music for a few minutes.  Then he noticed something had shaded his face.  He opened his eyes to see Blanca standing over him.

“Oh, hola, senorita Araneta”, he said casually.

Gesturing to his CD player, she asked: “What are you playing on that theeng?”

“Oh, this? Here, take a listen.”  Blanca perched on the edge of Consuela’s lounge chair, and Ian handed her the Discman. He leaned forward to put the headphones on her head. It was the first time that he had ever touched Blanca.  It gave him a tingle.

Blanca put on a huge grin the instant she heard the music.

“You like Ottmar Liebert? No way!  This is his first album, ‘Nouveau Flamneco’. You really like it?”

“Yeah, I sure do. I’m a recent convert to that music.  I’ve really gotten hooked on flamenco guitar, since I came down here.”

She nodded. “Well, E-an, then what is current-ally your favorite band?”

“I’d have to say, the Gipsy Kings. It’s almost hypnotic. From the first time I heard them sing ‘Bamboleo’, I just couldn’t get it out of my head.”

Blanca smiled and said softly, “Wow, I really like them too.”  Then she shook her head in disbelief, smiling. 

o  o  o

The next time that Ian met Blanca was at a weeknight dinner party, just three days later, hosted by Consuela and Pablo. The evening before, in halting Spanish, Doyle asked Consuela, “How should I dress for this?”

For the first time at one of his immersion class sessions, Consuela lapsed into English:  “Well, it is a dinner, you should wear a coat and a tie.”

“I’m just TDY down here, and I don’t have a suit with me. The only thing I have with a tie is my Service Dress Uniform.”

“That will be fine.  Wear that.”

Ian arrived early, carrying a clear plastic grocery bag with a bottle of Chilean white wine and a can of Almond Roca.  In the crook of his other arm were two large bouquets of white orchids.

Inviting him in, Pablo Dalgon said, “You can relax Ian.  We’re speaking all English tonight.  This is not a class night. Pure-ely social.”

Ian was taken aback to see that Blanca was already there, having arrived even earlier than Ian.  Doyle handed the flowers to Consuela, and said “ I brought a bunch for each of you.”  Pablo, who heretofore had hardly spoken to Ian, exclaimed, jokingly, “Oh how nice of you.  Flowers for both of us.”

Consuela gave Pablo a sharp look, and elbowed him in the ribs, chiding, “He means, flowers for both of the ladies.”

Pablo laughed and said, “I know. Jus’ kidding.”

As Blanca and Consuela each took their bouquets, Blanca glanced down to see what was in the bag.  She recognized the pink can.  Her jaw dropped a bit, and she gave Doyle a quizzical look.

In rapid damage-control mode, Doyle explained: “I heard from Consuela that you liked Almond Roca, so I bought a can. You know, to serve with dessert.”

As Consuela began serving dinner, Blanca’s eyes locked onto the can of candy sitting on the sideboard. Then she stared at Ian.

Blanca started laughing. “She pointed with a scolding finger at Doyle, and said, “E-an, I theenk you are trying to manip-o-late me.”

“Yes, I am, señorita. I freely admit that. But I’m doing so in a kind of nice, gentlemanly way.”

Through the rest of the dinner the talk was mainly about aviation, and differences between American and Honduran customs.  It was a very pleasant evening.  Pablo was quiet, as was his nature.  Ian and Blanca made plenty of eye contact. Consuela, clearly looking like a victorious matchmaker, steered the conversation. She often returned to topics where she gave Ian and Blanca opportunities to ask each other questions and talk about their accomplishments.

After dinner, Consuela served flan, with a piece of Almond Roca topping each piece of the gelatinous dessert. She was quite the diplomatic hostess.

Pablo and Consuela stepped out, to clear the dishes. In phrasing that he had practiced several times with Consuela’s coaching, Ian asked Blanca in Spanish:  “Señorita Araneta, I wish to ask your permission to court you in the coming days, with completely honorable intentions, if you would be so kind as to have me in your presence.”

Her answer was immediate: “You may call me Blanca, and yes, you may court me, with your promise to be a gentleman.”

                                                      o  o  o

Their next meeting was a lunch the following day, at the air base canteen.  But just as their conversation was starting, it was cut short:  One of Blanca’s co-workers rushed to their table, and exclaimed that the tower boss had fallen ill with a flu, and that Blanca was needed back at the control tower.  Then he turned and stepped away, just as quickly as he had arrived.

Blanca stood, and said, “I’m now in a hurry here, so this as you say is the ‘Reader’s Digest’ version:  I like you a lot, E-an.  I theenk you are fascinating. So now, it is the time I should take you up to the Estancia, so mi papa can give you the, uh, ‘Third Degree’.  You are seeming just way, way too good to be true… and my father, he is an expert at digging out the flaws of character in suit-ors.  We’ll see if he can scare you off.”  She raised her index finger and added: “He has, all the others, you know. I’ll schedule a dinner for next Saturday.”

Before he could answer, Blanca smiled, gave a little wave, and dashed away.

Ian sat dumbfounded at what he had just heard. Then he said a long silent prayer, and ate his lunch.

                                               o  o  o

To go meet Blanca’s father, Ian decided to wear a suit, instead of his Service Dress uniform.  But borrowing a suit that would fit him well took some scrambling, as did finding cufflinks and dress shoes. This turned into an evening-long scavenger hunt for many of the junior officers and GS-9s that lived on his floor of “Rick’s Place”.  Knocking on doors up and down the hall, Bryson Pitcher led Doyle and a “parade of suit beggars”.  This turned into movable party, with plenty of alcohol served.  Doyle heard repeatedly: “This deserves a toast!”  The lovely Blanca Araneta was a legendarily unreachable enigma for anyone that worked in flight operations, so the reactions were a mix of envy and awe.  The envy came mostly from the officers that were there on PCS assignments. They were miffed that a newly-arrived TDY O-2 could break the ice with Blanca, so quickly.

Blanca drove over from her apartment and picked Ian up at just after 3 p.m., for the hour-long drive to her family’s 90 hectare estancia, which was about three miles outside of Talanga. Blanca wore a simple black dress with a very modest neckline and hemmed below the knee. She wore very little makeup. Her hair was combed out and worn loosely.  This was the first time that Ian had seen it in anything but a simple ponytail. The only adornment she wore was a single large, teardrop-shaped pearl, on a gold chain.  Ian thought she looked gorgeous.  She definitely had the Grace Kelly vibe going: Understated, but stunning.

The drive north from Tegucigalpa was fairly quiet and revealed the nervousness they both felt.  There were just a few comments on the scenery, and a bit of travelogue from Blanca on the local history the age of certain buildings. Ian Doyle felt a new level of anxiety as she turned the car in the Estancia’s long driveway.  Even from a distance, Doyle could see that the house was huge, and that it had stables off to one side.

[Author's Note: The remainder of this sample chapter will be posted tomorrow. Copyright 2010. All Rights Reserved by James Wesley, Rawles. This material is not available for re-posting at other web sites. The novel is scheduled to be released by the Atria Division of Simon & Schuster in early 2011.]

In a TEOTWAWKI situation hygiene is going to become very important. As an E.R. Nurse I see hygiene problems everyday. I can’t begin to describe the things that I have seen… and I probably have post-traumatic stress disorder, as a result. Do you know that homeless alcoholics care very little about their personal hygiene?? A few years ago I learned a nice lesson on personal hygiene that I wanted to pass on. It may not be a new idea to some but I think it would be very useful to a lot of people who haven’t considered hygiene/showering post-SHTF. 

Ten years ago while going to nursing school I stumbled on an outstanding deal on 20 acres in Northern Arizona with a run down travel trailer on it. Being a poor college student I couldn’t afford rent and the land payment so I gave up the apartment and started an 18-month adventure. The trailer was full of mouse poop, had no running water, no electricity and no septic system. I learned a lot fast…

One of the problems that I faced was how to bathe. Initially I heated water on a propane camp stove in a large pot and took a sponge bath. It worked okay at best but I longed for a hot shower. While stumbling around in a home improvement store I came upon an idea. They had all these hand pump 1-to-2 gallon multipurpose household sprayers. I thought they might work better then the “sponge job” that I was currently doing. While trying to decide which one to purchase one of the 2 gallon sized sprayers stated it came with a showerhead nozzle. I bought it and it and to this day it was one of the best $20 purchases I ever made.

Showering with a multipurpose sprayer was not that difficult at all. I still used the propane camp stove to heat the water in a large pot. Once the water reached a nice temp I poured it into the sprayer. Pumped it up to pressure and hung it from the existing showerhead in the trailer bathroom. I didn’t have septic so the bath water dumped into a hole under the trailer. The gray water never became a problem since I was only using 1-2 gallons of water. I took a “military shower” that consisted of wetting down, soaping up and then rinsing off. Most days a single gallon of water was all that was needed. On days when I was really filthy or needed a special treat I used two gallons.

I recently tried to locate another multipurpose sprayer with a showerhead attachment and only found one site online carrying it. I found the original company that made my sprayer (the RL Flo-Master Sprayer) but could not find the showing attachment listed on their site. I believe that the showerhead attachment made all the difference between the standard spray nozzle and a real shower experience.  Not willing to give up yet I contacted the original company and found that the attachment is still available. I just ordered 10 of them. Don’t quote me but I bet the attachment would work on other brands of multipurpose sprayers. Below is the contact information and I hope this article was helpful.

Poly Shower Head Nozzle
Part # 952-361
$2.00/each plus shipping

RL Flo-Master
P.O. Box 289
Lowell, MI 49331
Phone # 1-800-253-4642
Fax # 1-800-968-3555

JWR Adds: These sprayers can also be useful for NBC decontamination. Oh, and of course, never use a sprayer that has been previously used for herbicides, pesticides, or other chemicals, for showering!

Sir,
Digital Archives and Your One and Only Mortal Life articletoday. Unable to sleep last night, I took my new 4 Gig USB ["memory stick"] drive and downloaded your entire site. It was nice to read how wise I'd been the day after! It is far easier to permanently protect a USB drive than all computers. Figure that if any of my computers are fried, there will be one available somewhere that isn't! I still print out the more salient pieces on your site for nighttime reading, though... I already have a monumental JWR library!

I've been a "prepper" since '98. It's a humbling process - something like life itself. You can't provide for every contingency; either from lack of funds or lack of information. Ergo - you play the odds and take your best shot - allocating available resources to relative probabilities. The best part is imparting certain basic skills and universal beliefs to grandchildren - without creating fear. Amazing how small abilities in little hands help overcome insecurities and result in confident young adults!

Here is how I fairly quickly made my own SurvivalBlog archives:

Open www.survivalblog.com on your computer.
Plug in your portable USB drive to any available slot.
On the left-hand side of the main page, select what you wish to download (i.e.; in "Categories, select "Body Armor (41) ).
When that page has opened, right click your mouse, then left click "Save Page As".
When you've done the above, you'll get the Windows "save as" menu. Select "My Documents" at the top where it says "Save in", then at the bottom of that menu select the auto-generated file name which is in this case "SurvivalBlog.com Body Armor Archives."

That transfers the entire page to the Documents section of your computer.
In "Documents" on your computer, it will show both a folder icon (ignore Archives.htm). Right click on that file and select "Send to", then select your portable USB drive as the target.

Bingo - it's now on your portable drive and on your home computer (where it's taking up space that you may need to use later).
Repeat the above, topic by topic, until you've downloaded everything that you want.
To free up the space on your home computer, you'll need to delete (in the Documents folder) both the "SurvivalBlog.com Body Armor Archives.htm" FOLDER AND the "SurvivalBlog.com Body Armor Archives.htm" actual document file.
Or, you can keep it in both places if you have room or in case the dog swallows your mini USB Drive.

It took me less than an hour to download all the topics and archives doing it subject by subject. Maybe there's an easier way, but this got the job done.

You, Sir, are providing the tools for we (hopeful) remnants of society to "keep on keepin' on" during darker days. And if not us, then the younger ones to whom we both teach and pass on our attitudes,
knowledge and goods. As the only viable central clearing house for preparation ideas, you're the proverbial "cat's meow"... sorry - showing my retirement age status. Anyway, my hat's off to you: great
book; great site; great and humble man of Christ and Humanity. Thanks for all you do, and God Bless you. - Angus

Roubini says Euro's days may be numbered. (Thanks to GG for the link.)

Chad S. spotted this: Canada considers eliminating the penny.

Kevin sent us this: States Bristle as Investors Make Wagers on Defaults

Also from Kevin: In ‘Chair City,’ Budget Cuts are ‘Amputating’ Municipal Services

Items from The Economatrix:

Meat Prices May Spike this Summer (Stock up your chest freezer now, and lay in a supply of canned meat! Since grain prices are remaining high, meat will probably be very expensive for the next few years. It is a good thing that we mainly eat elk and venison, here at the Rawles Ranch!)

Unemployment Challenges Obama's Narrative

Greece Cut to Junk at S&P as Contagion Spreads

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Considering Bankruptcy

Spain Downgraded, Europe Debt Crisis Widens JWR Notes: Iceland, Greece, Portugal, and now Italy and Spain. Who is next?

Lisa sent this: Food Prices Rocket in North Korea. Lisa's comment: "The article says the prices change by the hour." Can another famine be coming to North Korea?

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Reader John G. passed along two URLs for government surplus auctions: GovDeals.com and GovSales.gov. John notes: "I have seen more items listed lately. I guess the states are trying to recoup their deficits."

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From Nanny State California: Santa Clara County: Supervisors ban toys with fast-food meals

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Survivalblog's Editor at Large Michael Z. Williamson flagged this piece: Making a Wooden Bicycle. While of course not dependable for longevity, this bike at least demonstrates the value of ingenuity.

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." - Frederic Bastiat, The Law.

Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com. (A $275 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Author’s Background
I live in Northeastern Minnesota with my wife and four children ages: four to seven.  I teach and am a sports coach at the local high school in town (population 1,200).  We live two hours away from any type of big city, which in our case is Duluth, Minnesota (population 85,000).  My wife is a stay-at-home mom.  Three years ago, we built a new house four miles outside of town on 15 acres that my parents gave us.  Combined, we make just over $56,000 a year.  In just this past year, my wife and I have started making the transition to a more preparedness-minded lifestyle.  As I have scanned and read hundreds of articles online, I have found a wealth of practical information, but little in the way of practical advice for families.  I hope this article helps young families that are either on a limited budget, may feel overwhelmed in their initial stages of preparation, or both.

My Introduction to Preparedness
I didn’t know it at the time, but my introduction to preparedness came in 1999 when I sat at a large table with about 15 other men in a small town café for our weekly bible study.  A small portion of these men were worried about Y2K and urged others to prepare.  I thought they were “nuts.”  I did respect them as Christian men, however, and prayed for guidance.  Looking back, I was a squared away 24 year-old but was still spiritually immature.  At that time in my life, I felt no urging by the Lord to prepare for Y2K. 

About ten years later in the middle of a bitterly cold 2009 winter night, the power went out in my newly-built home.  My home, at the time, ran completely on electricity with no form of back-up heat.  I was lucky to have in-floor heat on both levels of my home, but the wind was howling that night, as the temperatures outside kept dropping and eventually hit 30 below zero.  With the wind chill effect, it was probably near 60 to 70 below.  My kids didn’t like how dark the house was, even though we had flashlights on hand for each of them.  I put my four children to sleep early and piled on some extra blankets.  At 7:00 p.m. it was 60 in the house and I wasn’t worried as my new home was well-insulated and built tight.  I went to call my parents, who own the 20 acres bordering the western boundary of our place.  Our phones in the house, however, all depended on electricity so I decided that my call could wait until the morning.  When I went to bed at 11:00 p.m. it was now 50 in the house and I just assumed the power company guys were having a hard time in the wind and cold.  I woke up in the early morning and noticed that it was about 40 degrees in the house and still no electricity.  I was now a little uneasy as I didn’t need pipes freezing up on me.  At 7:00 a.m. I bundled up the kids and took them next door where I knew my dad had a gas fireplace.  To my surprise, his electricity was up and running.  To make a long story short, it was just my place without power as the wires from the transformer came loose when my box moved from winter heaving.  I called the power company and they had my box fixed within the hour.  Nothing bad had happened, but it did get me thinking about a few questions:

• What if we were without power for a few days, a week, or even longer?
• What am I going to do to make sure I don’t have to be up all night worrying about my children?

Later, I called up one of the men in my bible study from years back….one of the “nuts.”  We started talking regularly and then I started emailing back and forth with his brother who lives in Alaska.  Both guys are solid Christian men with a heart for being prepared and ready.  They borrowed me the book, One Second After by William Forstchen.  Reading that book gave me a sense of urgency.  In addition, I also teach Economics, Political Science, and Finance and am very weary of today’s economy for numerous reasons.  When I got to the point where I was ready to make a commitment to preparedness for my family, here are the steps we took to get started (these are in no particular order - just how they worked for us):

Step One: Get on the Same Page with your Wife
While my wife and I agree that the man is the spiritual head of the family, it sure makes life easier in all respects when you both agree to commit to something together.  Depending on your circumstances, this may take some time, substantial prayer, and even some tutoring.  This may mean having your spouse read Mr. Rawles' excellent book,"Patriots".  It may mean having them read One Second After.  I have a friend of mine right now that would like to start preparing, but hasn’t had the courage to bring it up to his wife yet.  How is that going to work?  It isn’t.  We need to be on the same page with our wives.

Step Two: Make a Financial Plan
I first thought to myself, “I can’t afford to buy any of these items.  We live paycheck to paycheck with a nice big mortgage payment on the 25th of each month.”  My wife and I then had to decide how serious we really were.  Is this just talk, or are we going to commit to being prepared?  Do I want to watch my kids freeze to death if TEOTWAWKI takes place?  I suggest each family assess their own individual situation and then plan out their finances in two phases if possible:

• Decide if you can make a “down payment” to jumpstart your preparation.
• Then, factor in a monthly stipend for preparation goods and materials.  Think of it like paying a monthly life insurance premium, only this one will save your life.

Step Three: Evaluate Your Situation and Prioritize Your Needs
One thing to mention here:  Just because you have something on your priority list of preparation items, doesn’t mean you can go get it right away.  You have to balance your “priority list” with your checkbook.  My wife and I won’t buy anything we can’t afford.  If we have to use a credit card to get it, we simply don’t!  In our individual situation we created this prioritized list:

• A Wood Stove to heat the house and to cook on in case of an emergency.
• Installation of a hand pump on our current well for water
• Back up food:  Both short-term and long-term
• Learning new skills (Making our own bread from wheat, canning our vegetables from the garden, using non-hybrid seeds, splitting our own wood, etc.)
• Buying some added security (Guns and ammo)

For example, we decided to cash-in a $6,500 investment that I could get without paying a penalty.  We first used some of that money to purchase a new wood stove and a hand pump for our well.  Heat and water were no longer concerns for us.  What was next for us?  Back-up food.  Each time at the grocery store we spend an extra $50 on canned goods, rice, cereal, staples, toilet paper, etc. to build up a rotating pantry that will last our family of six approximately three months.

The next step for us was the hardest: long-term food.  In my humble opinion, once you decide to buy long-term food, you have entered the official prepper stage.  Now you are in.  We took $1000 from my investment and used half of it to buy a Country Living Grain Mill and all of its extra parts.  We then bought 1000 pounds of hard red wheat, 200 pounds of rye berries, and a few other staples like wheat, sugar, etc.

My friend (from the bible study) and his wife then taught us how to make the following: bread from scratch using the mill, corn meal mush from feed corn, and bannock native biscuit-type bread).  We then set up future dates to learn how to make Ezekiel bread over an open fire, as well as many other helpful tutorials we could use around the house.

Last, but not least, I used my tax return and bought a DPMS AR-15 and 1,000 rounds of ammo for an added sense of security.  If anyone would have come over to our place in a threatening manner and we had to defend ourselves, before that purchase, I only had the following: a single shot Remington Model 37 Steelbilt 20 gauge shotgun, a Remington 30-06 Model 700 hunting rifle, and my .380 Bersa with just one magazine.  With some remaining money left over, I found two spare magazines for my .380.  I have much more on my wish list that we just can’t afford at this time.  I really don’t want to have to use any of these weapons, but if the time comes where I must protect my wife and kids, I will be ready with the resources that I have.

Don't Be Intimidated By What Others Have!  Everyone’s financial situation and priorities are different.  My wife and I could have easily read what others have in the way of supplies and knowledge and just said, “There’s no way we can do that.”  Instead, we just decided to do what we can with what we have.  We have to give our plan to the Lord and let him provide for us in the ways he sees fit.  Start where you can, and get on the same page with your family.  What are you immediate needs?  Can you get them now?  If not, now you have something to save for.  If yes, that is great.  Now you can move down your list to the next priority.  We are now currently saving up for a case of freeze-dried butter powder and a case of freeze-dried egg powder.  My next big wish is to build an underground root cellar somewhere on our property.

Step Four: Include Your Kids in Everything so They are Prepared
If I tell my kids that we are having a fire drill, they can get out of their beds, crawl on the floor, open the window, take off the screens, and get out of the house in less than one minute.  All four kids also know to meet behind the shed if such a thing were to happen.  Our kids need to be a part of the process.  If TEOTWAWKI happens and our kids are so terrified that they can’t function, surviving will be twice as difficult.  I once did the fire drill while throwing pillows at the kids.  That day we taught them to be focused even if there is chaos all around them.

Our kids also help in the bread-making process, each to their own abilities.  The oldest can now turn the mill; one mixes the flour, etc.  All four of our kids also know where we store our food and they know not to tell anyone.  We tell them, “Lots of people don’t have extra grain.  It is like bragging.  Just tell people that dad’s hunting and fishing gear is in that cabinet.”

As a kid I grew up hunting and fishing with my dad, but my dad always did the “messy” work like gutting the deer and cleaning the fish.  My wife and I are doing our best to teach our kids how to fish, a healthy respect (not fear) for guns, the tips to wood splitting, how to start a fire, etc.  Our kids are too young to do a lot right now, but we always take the time to teach the “how and why” of what we are doing.  Our kids love it and are now starting to ask if they can help.  We never deny them that opportunity.

Even if your kids are young, don’t underestimate what they can do.  Here are some things we have been introducing our four young children to:

• Fishing
• Stacking, hauling, cutting wood
• How to start a fire
• Lighting a candle in the house on their own
• How to identify animal tracks
• A respect for guns – an introduction to shooting with the Red Rider
• How to cook various meals
• A familiarity with our property and our trail system
• How to use walkie-talkies
• Fire Drills and places on the property to meet
• Camping skills and helping put up a tent
• How to use a compass
• How to use a slingshot

Obviously, I am not going to hand my three year old a 12-guage shotgun and let him go in the woods.  All of our boys, however, the four-year old included, can start a fire from scratch in my wood stove or in our fire pit.  As they get older, we challenge them with the next level of preparedness.  Not only are you giving your kids invaluable skills for the future, you are helping them become self-sufficient and not reliant on others.

Step Five: Use Discernment in Finding Like-Minded Friends
My wife and I have been fortunate to find an older couple to mentor us.  We are careful not to open ourselves up to just anyone.  We live in a small town where if one person tells others something, you can assume a large minority of town knows about it.  We have many close friends that have no idea about our level of preparedness.  When we see an opening in a conversation with someone we trust, we will feel them out, and take it from there. 

Step Six: Continue to Research and Don’t Get Discouraged!
I can’t believe how much I have learned in just a year’s time.  SurvivalBlog alone has thousands of outstanding articles written by people who have been preparing for years and years.  Use the internet and any other resources of information you can find.  Like many others, my wife and I have started our own little library of books, articles, etc.  We even learned how to seal up Mylar bags in our five gallon buckets of food storage on YouTube!

In conclusion, if you are a beginning family or have a tight budget, don’t get discouraged!  Even if you just start by putting away $20 a month and save up your funds for a while.  Over time that money will grow and you will have a nice start to your preparedness plan.  Checking out books at the library is free.  Take down the notes you feel are important and then move on to another book.  Before you know it, you and your family will find that preparedness is a way of life.

James:
While DeWalt is a good choice for tools, in order to save at least 30% off your next purchase look into the factory reconditioned web sites of DeWalt or in my case Bosch Tools. I used the Bosch 12 volt DC drill, in a production factory setting 10 hours a day for a year as a test. The battery only needed swapping once a day. The results were that I gave all our corded drills to the employees and purchased seven of their 12 VDC drills for the production floor. Bosch also has the 6 foot drop test on concrete test on their side.

Each unit had two batteries and charger and its built in circuitry it would charge the battery without the battery developing a memory. These drills stood up to many years of factory daily use and they came
with a one year total replacement and a two year repair warranty after that. I purchased for personal use the 18 volt combo set. It came with a coupon for a hand plainer that has come in handy. Each job is different and yes, there is a difference between 12v, 18v and 24v as far as battery life. If weight of the tool is an issue, then the 12 volt tools will take care of most routine jobs and will be lighter to handle. You may
also look into a 12 volt[input voltage] charger that is available for both. I also purchased a table saw, a compound miter saw and a router with table from the Factory Reconditioned site at least a 30% savings. Choose the best tools you can but more important save at least 30 % while doing so. Go to the factory site and look for reconditioned tools. These will have a new factory warranty and you will see the latest offerings.

I found out about Bosch through a open house at a welding supply house. I also was able to acquire a neat ratchet set [made in Taiwan] that eliminates the need for deep socket sets, called the GearRatchet. At these open houses at your local welding [or tool] distributor you will find lots of new items to consider and you will save money during the show on new tools and get some excellent food. In my case I was also able to get an extra 5% off by purchasing as many tools as I could and writing a testimonial letter about my experience with the company's tools when negotiating with the sales rep. I have no financial interest in these companies. I used to own a business and tried to buy the tools that passed the test of abuse and time. When considering your tool purchase talk to those that use the tools daily and when you purchase spending a little more can go a long way. I still have tools that I purchased 40 years ago and used daily at work for 30 years. Regards, - Jeff B.

Mr Rawles.
I read "Patriots" nearly a year ago and was impressed with the well written plot, realistic scenario and detail oriented implicit planning and tips. I learned a while thereafter of your SurvivalBlog and have been nibbling at it in chunks, trying yet to digest it. I imagine you notice a bit of a self selecting bias in people who read and enjoy your writing, even more in those who choose to e-mail you, so I won't write the usual bits about how alike we think. I will write that I appreciate what you're doing with the SurvivalBlog site and the books you write.

Since your e-mail page said you particularly like hearing from those overseas I decided I'd write you a note. Right now I'm writing to you from a little morale tent in the desert in Afghanistan. You've likely heard of Marjeh in Helmand province, I'm seven kilometers from the edge of it. I've been here six months now and was here when we were the most forward unit, before 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 6th Marine Regiment swooped in to clear Marjeh. I'm a Marine, and actually according to the "about the author" in your book, we share a common specialty.

Being in the middle of a real live failed state, complete with an active counter-insurgency (COIN) fight including local national troops, Coalition troops, insurgents, and drug runners) and abject poverty has been very educational. These people live in literal mud huts. The wealthy among them drive 10 year old sedans or hatchbacks over roads most wouldn't dare drive their fancy SUVs. Some own a motorcycle or two or, wealth of wealths, own a tractor. They eke out a[ marginal subsistence] living, with high infant and child mortality rates, or for that matter high mortality rates in general.

I suppose the biggest lessons here have been about how militaries operate in occupations and COIN, how insurgents can operate, and how the people survive. Mostly they do it by numbers, but occasionally an individual stands out who is wily and skilled.

Anyway, I'd like to write an article to compete for your prizes, but haven't yet gotten through all your backlog [archive]s. I assume people have written on the basic principles of "shoot, move & communicate" but has anyone written on the five paragraph order?

Thanks, - R.P.

JWR Replies: Thanks for your letter. We have not yet posted a detailed article on the Five Paragraph Operations Order. That would be greatly appreciated, and instructive to the many SurvivalBlog readers that lack Army or Marine Corps experience.

GG sent this: ECB may have to turn to 'nuclear option' to prevent Southern European debt collapse

Brett G. spotted this article over at NewsMax: U.S. Debt to Hit $20 Trillion, Financial Times Warns

Greek borrowing costs hit high as Germany fuels uncertainty over aid. (Thanks to R.I.P. for the link.)

RBS sent this piece about foreclosed real estate: Flipping houses is back in South Los Angeles

Europe debt crisis spreads to Portugal (Standard & Poors downgraded Greece and Portugal sovereign debt paper to "junk" status today.)

Items from The Economatrix:

Stocks Pull Back on Europe's Deepening Debt Woes

Europe Debt Crisis Spreads to Portugal

Consumer Confidence Grows as Economy Strengthens

What Gold Bubble?

Market Manipulation and Delusions of Prosperity (The Mogambo Guru)

UAE eyes three-month food stockpile. JWR Notes: It is noteworthy that nation states don't launch into expensive ventures like this, sua sponte. Catch a clue, and stock up, folks! (A hat tip to Bob G. for the link.)

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Simon J. sent this technology development news: New Inexpensive Material Will Turn Night Into Day

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Rich at KT Ordnance forwarded this one: Agents of Incompetence: ATF Dodges FOIA, Still Has Seized BB Guns (Part IV)

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Nick S. flagged this bit of nuttery from Nanny State Britannia: Boy banned from eating cheese sandwich

"I wish there was a knob on the TV so you could turn up the intelligence. They got one marked 'brightness' but it don't work, does it?" - Leo Anthony Gallagher

Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com. (A $275 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

When you finally die and I know your not eager to, the world will certainly go on. You might be so lucky to have someone cry at your funeral. Regardless of how important you thought you were, your death will not be as special to the world or to yourself. You will be dead like the billions of animals and species before you.  After a week, maybe two, life here on planet earth will be the same as before you died. Most, if not all, will not miss you in the caring ways that you would want to believe. Like many, you didn’t have a say coming in this world, and you won’t have a say leaving this world. I and most of the people in the world would like to live, this life, without the need for suffering. When your time comes, time will take you out of this life. You will not escape this certainty.  There are a million ways to go. Nobody knows how it happens, until it does. I think it and wait for it to appear. Not knowing when, is the greatest mystery. It could be in a second or a hundred years. It will come. The law of death is simple. All living things shall perish. The containment of your life force energy and/or soul is part of the law of thermodynamics, the transformation of energy.

Imagine, if you will, a tree full of leaves that has fallen to the ground. The energy it took for the leaves to fall gently is the same amount of energy to rake them up. Just displayed differently. A second instance of energy transformation is a 300 pound man losing 100 pounds. His weight was lost because he used it as energy. One third of him is gone forever in a different form--somewhat painless.
Another instance of thermodynamics is a bottle of propane ignited under a small stove heating water. The propane turns to fire transferring to heat energy thus boiling the water. The water then changes to steam. The steam evaporates into the air and/or atmosphere. The vapor then gets absorbed or diminishes and turns to rain or condensation, consumed by a living creature or living organism then used as energy
again and made whole to earth once more. (This is another transformation of energy.)

Life is quite simple in living terms. Energy can’t be created nor destroyed. Just transferred to different forms.. I’m not saying your death will be painless but I am telling you that your pain, if any, will only last a short time compared to time of existence. Some great writers have written that death is as easy as stepping out of your body. The smarter you are, the easier it will be to guide yourself through your one and only [mortal] life. I hope you read, learn, teach and guide, through the different and strange times which lay ahead. The one thing I have learned about emergency preparation is don’t waste time trying to convince anyone of their needs that don’t want convincing. No matter how much you love or care for somebody, prepare for your own immediate survival should be your top priority! You must take care of yourself in order to help take care of others.

To help keep you alive, I'll focus on one key preparedness step:

“Prepare a laptop inside a Faraday Box”
                                     

You should store the following references on your laptop hard drive [or on memory sticks, CD-ROMs & DVDs that you can access with your laptop]:

Barter:
To include valuable information on what people will need for survival trades and efficiency, for day to day living wants and needs.

Boots and Clothing:
How to repair boots and clothing, to include various sewing techniques, glues, patches, laces, buttons, zippers, sew kits, Velcro and items needed or stored.

Civil Defense:
Technical operation and/or procedures on how the civil authority will lead. Establish and support an authority figure during the crisis, which may mean you.

Combat Skills:
Various skills to lead and teach realistic offensive tactics and defensive tactics and positions. Don't overlook weapons training and weapons repair manuals. [JWR Adds: There are now some excellent training videos available on DVD, such as The Art of the Tactical Carbine, but of course they are no substitute for hands-on training and the hours of practice needed to create muscle memory. For some free assembly/disassembly manuals in PDF, see the manufacturer web sites, as well as Steve's Pages. (BTW, you'll also find a lot of useful military manuals at Steve's Pages, such as FM 3-105 Survivability. )

Command:
How to organize, maintain and discipline as a leader, how to give orders and create and maintain a disciplined organizational structure. See the military organizational manuals that describe Unity of Command and related topics.

Communication:
Various types of radios, CB, Morse code [HF ham radio], American Sign Language (ASL). Also to include antenna fabrication and/or makeshift communications devices.

Computer Programs: 
In addition to backups of operating system and word processing/spreadsheets, include specialized programs related to radio communications, propagation, ballistics calculations, and others.

Construction:
Information on how to:  Shelter building, carpentry, plumbing, electrical, welding, mold making and casting of raw materials.

Dental:
How to maintain good teeth and dentistry with the correct tools when need be.

Dictionary: You must be knowledgeable and have key references.

Economics and References:
What brought us to this economic crisis and who are the money masters? How long has the monetary system been around? You could download thousand of pages and help teach the truth. Store your own economic data. [JWR Adds: References on the standard weight and composition of various silver and gold might be crucial.]

Encyclopedia Britannica:
The entire world at your finger tips such as, science, discovery, arts, crafts, math, English, videos, writings, and so much more.

FEMA:
Federal Emergency Management Agency- procedures, operations, expectations and what to expect for various disaster assistance.

Food:
MRE, freeze dried, dehydrated, stored foods, canned foods, canning, bottling, cooking, preparation, recipes, gardening, raising animals, making your own bread, sprouts, cookware, medical care with [soft] foods.

Games:
Various games to keep you [and your children] happy and keep morale up.

Health And Fitness:
Exercising, fitness, eating correctly, not being lazy - work, work, work.

Herb and Vitamin Cures:
Store massive amounts of data on herb and vitamin cures and personal treatments for all types of ailments. Don’t forget your vitamins.

Hygiene:
Making your own soaps, bleach, laundry soaps. Learning to use household remedies. Toiletries, solutions, disease fighting techniques, and sanitary solutions to include corpse handling/burial.

Items Wanted/ Needed:
Keep notes and massive data on you need, not want, no matter how long it is. [JWR Adds: The Alpha Strategy by John Pugsley is a great starting point. The book is out of print, but a PDF is available for free download.]

Local Government Readiness:
It’s wise to be prepared. The government is a small number of people. Governments like to dictate how to, but you should learn how to, without the government.  It’s a never ending battle of learning to live and to expect the unexpected. Remember, what can go wrong will go wrong. Often, it will be something you would have never of thought of.

Maps (Road and Street), U.S. and Canada:
Collect massive amounts of data on streets and/or other geographical data for your region, to include railroads, bus systems, sewers, drains, taxi depots, bus depots. Getting lost is no fun.

Medical:
Collect references on home remedies, medical and human anatomy. There are plenty of downloads out there. [JWR Adds: Start with a free download of Where There is No Doctor,and Where There is No Dentist, from The Hesperian Foundation.]

Monthly Checklist:
Include chores from every day to every month, month to month, year to year maintenance and up keep on grounds, machinery, equipment, tools, weapons and/or perimeter establishment and grounds.

Nuclear Biological Chemical (NBC):
What to do in the attack scenario for nuclear, biological, and/or chemical attack or mishap. How to recover from the NBC situation. Recovery is your only option. There are lots of references on the Internet. I urge you to figure out what works best for you. Download it now and store it. You can always read more later. You must be able to retrieve data if the power grid is down, so plan ahead for alternate power source , inverters, and DC-to-DC adapters for your laptop. [Nuclear War Survival Skills by Cresson H. Kearney is available for free download.]

Outdoor Survival: How can you survive in the woods, desert, jungle, sea, ocean, lake, mountains, brush, bush. How will you gather water and food? Get videos and download as much info as you can because you will never know where you could end up.

Pests:
How to get rid of particular bugs, pests, rodents. How to attract them for your advantage and how to use them as bait.

Pets: Store food, water, medical, shelter, for your pets. Download veterinary guides to fix your pet's problems. Get antibiotics now and store them..

Pictures and Videos:
Store photos, pictures, movies and videos to look at and watch later. You will be surprised at just how much entertainment is out there. [JWR Adds: Instructional videos can also be stored--even ones found on YouTube.]

Power Heat Fuel:
How are you going to keep warm? How are you going to create power? Candle making, bio-fuel, liquor, wood, heat rocks, make a tent inside your home? Create electricity, solar, wind, hydro, Sterno, generators, steam power, Sterling engine power, making batteries, inverters, charge controllers, drawings, diagrams, schematics.

Protocols:
State the exact protocol or direction on how to handle the situation that just arose. Rule of thumb is to stay where you are for as long as you can safely.

Reading Materials:
Download books you might think you will like in the future. You may want to start downloading survival books, medical, nutritional, gardening, recipes, how to manuals, et cetera.

Religion:
Download various Bible translations for future reference. The Grim Reaper may approach you sooner than you think. Laugh now but tomorrow may be another story. You will want the hands of God to guide you, even if you are presently a little skeptical.

Security Intelligence:
Who, what, when, why, where, how many, what are your intentions, weapons, who is the leader? What are you facing? The biggest threat are your neighbors and/or neighborhood. Where are the hideouts in your area? Is it the church or the stream bed? The best defense is a great offense.

Shelter:
Download various shelter building techniques-- underground shelters, bunkers, domes, ICF block construction, wood construction, adobe, rammed earth, straw bale and anything else you can get your hands on.

Tactics:
Invisibility is a great benefactor, ghillie suits are great, but if your opponent has thermal night vision gear, you are screwed. The best enemies are ones that will fight themselves. Camouflage is the greatest tactic.

Terrorism:
Nuclear, biological, chemical, accidental, rail collisions, confusion, what to do and how to do it.

Transportation:
Buses, taxis, planes, trains, automobiles, animals, skateboard, foot/feet, bicycle, mini bike, moped, motor bike, electric skateboard, ski’s, camper, motor home, class A, B, &C, recreational vehicles, military vehicles, gyrocopter, helicopter, hot wiring, and so on.

Water:
Water filters, distilling, bleach, containers, pills, can you purify sea water? Do you know what to do if water is contaminated with nuclear fallout? How can you kill pathogens and bacteria? Water is the most vital information of all. Don’t take it for granted. What will you do if the tap stops working?

Weapons:
Manuals, drawings, spare parts, directions, tools needed for repairing weapons, oils, lubrications, cleaning supplies, gun safes, holsters, sights, extra ammo, extra magazines, and such.

Weather:
Information and understanding of earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, summer’s extreme heat, winter’s extreme cold, fall, spring, ice storms, volcanoes, wind-driven wild fires, heavy snowfall, landslides, tsunami, thunderstorms, floods, droughts, severe climate shifts and wind storms. Are you ready for all of these?

Conclusion
Personally, I’m not as prepared as I should be, or would like to be. Many people that I have spoken to feel the same way. Money is presently very tight, and most people in reality are living week to week if not day to day.
Information in the United States or the World Wide Web thankfully costs nearly nothing. For me, knowledge right now seems to be the most important way I can prepare because it is free. I can help guide and teach people through their situations. Which to some may be more important than having worldly possessions.

If I had more money I would love to buy weapons, a month’s worth of  food, a piece of property, a house or a smile on someone else’s face.
For now I can only try to prepare by gathering the knowledge others never thought of, but may someday need.

JWR Adds: See the SurvivalBlog archives for a wealth of information (more than 8,000 archived posts) that will be useful in disaster situations. In addition to making digital archives as Dakota Diamond has suggested, I strongly recommend printing out or purchasing commercially printed hard copies of the most crucial references. (See my Bookshelf page, for some suggested "must" reference books.) Hard copy is the only sure way to have references at your fingertips, when the Schumer hits the fan.

Dear Mr. Rawles,
I live in Albertville, Alabama.  We were hit by a tornado Saturday night. The things that I witnessed in Albertville were very similar to that of Yazoo City [which was recently described by another SurvivalBlog reader.]

I would like to add to some things for you to consider:

The tornado in our town stayed above the ground for a large part of the destruction.  This means that if you had trees close to your house, more than likely, you are going to have damage. Do not have trees too close or allow them to get too big.           

A house with a hip-style roof will hold-up better than a gabled roof.

Asphalt shingles actually outlasted tin.  Small portions of asphalt were missing in some people’s houses as opposed to large sections of tin. 

In this region, these storms always come from the West.  Have as few windows as possible on the west side.

More people will watch you work than help you work. 

People will come in and try to take your stuff.  We piled junk on the side of the road that was destroyed.  People had the gall to pick through our stuff as we were piling more onto the pile.  They were making a bigger mess than the tornado.  I explained that if they took one thing they were taking it all.  The woman called me an expletive and gave me the finger.  An officer, who I know, witnessed the whole thing and arrested the lady for hindering a government operation.

People will loot food and vice items quickly.  Convenience stores and grocery stores will be the first looted.

Never ever store anything you will need in an emergency situation in a portable out-building.  It will be scattered all over other people’s yards.

Do not park your camper in your front yard.  It will be in someone else’s yard when you find it.

If your area is impacted by a tornado, be prepared to be hassled.  Even if you know every officer in your town, other agencies will send officers to help and they do not know you.

If the stuff you need is away from your house you might not be able to get to it for many days.  My brother lives on the other side of Albertville.  He was not able to get me the tractor he had borrowed until Sunday afternoon.

Join a Reserve Deputy Program if you can.  The badge will help you get back to your home.

Be on a first name basis with an electrician.  When utility poles are snapped, they will get your house's power lines ready to be re-connected.

The bottom line is that my family has been reading this blog for several years.  If it was not for SurvivalBlog, we might be one of the guys looking for help instead of being ready to get to work.

I took the [November, 2009] blog post regarding generator preparation to heart, so my generator was ready to work the next morning after the tornado struck.

Thank you Mr. Rawles and thank you to those who post here. I am a better person for it. - JEH

I want to thank JIR for his article and the efforts he went through showing us how to construct and supply underground caches. I just wanted to suggest an alternative to the custom made containers by using a 300 gallon spherical below ground septic tank. They are made of watertight plastic with a o-ring sealed lid and weigh around 110 pounds. (See the Tank Depot web site.) The rough size of the tank is 54" in diameter and 51 inches tall with a 20 inch manhole cover. You would also only dig 118 cubic feet for a 5 foot diameter x 6 foot deep hole versus 280 cubic ft for a 5 foot wide x 4 foot tall x 14 foot long trench. The price for one of these tanks (without delivery) is under $400 ea. - DWJ

Howdy Jim,
Its a little more expensive possibly but you can use molded water/chemical tanks for your cache. They would be much easier to use than building a culvert. These ones have a 16" diameter opening at the top which would make it much easier to load and retrieve items and come in a variety of sizes. These tanks are very heavy duty and of seamless construction.

To line the pit used for any tank or cache I would use heavy pond liner. You can get this online up to 45 mils in thickness. Home Depot sell 15' x 15' pond liner in 20 mil thickness. Just line the hole with the appropriate size, add you cache container and wrap. I would then place a sheet on top sloping away from the cache that I was burying to direct seeping rainwater away. - Ken L.

"Hambone" sent us a link to a must-read piece over at Seeking Alpha: Current U.S. Dollar Currency Controls

Blaine sent an interesting article as follow-up to my link from Saturday: GM is using our tax dollars to repay our tax dollars to get more of our tax dollars at a reduced interest rate. A nice deal if you can get it.

H.T. sent this: Commercial Real Estate Losses and the Risk to Financial Stability. This U.S. Senate report begins: "The Congressional Oversight Panel's February oversight report, "Commercial Real Estate Losses and the Risk to Financial Stability," expresses concern that a wave of commercial real estate loan losses over the next four years could jeopardize the stability of many banks, particularly community banks. Commercial real estate loans made over the last decade - including retail properties, office space, industrial facilities, hotels and apartments - totaling $1.4 trillion will require refinancing in 2011 through 2014."

White House warns of the dangers of huge deficits

Debt panel says Obama will approve debt findings (before they're even made!)

Unemployment challenges Obama's rhetoric

Pennsylvania city considers bankruptcy

Eric S. sent this bit of NOAA prognostication: Warming in America; Mass migrations, water wars, and insect plagues. How will climate change reshape the electoral map? Even without "abrupt" climate change, economic and demographic shifts dictate that times will likely be difficult, for decades to come.

   o o o

Gary and Marie K. were the first of several readers to send us this piece that originated from Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Prepping for the worst

   o o o

Ay, ay, ay: Two Illinois lawmakers ask governor to deploy National Guard to help quell gun violence in Chicago. (Hat tips to both Ed B. and frequent contributor Chad S. for the link.)

   o o o

GG flagged this: More American Expatriates Give Up Citizenship. (And here is some commentary by Lew Rockwell.)

   o o o

R.J. suggested this piece on Peak Oil: The Imminent Crash of Oil Supply: Be Afraid

"As the state grows, one’s sense of self-ownership is destroyed, liberty is traded for 'security', the human spirit diminishes, and the citizenry increasingly thinks and behaves like dependent children". - Eric Englund in Income Taxes, Obesity, and Other Maladies of Nanny Statism, 2005.

We are praying for the folks in the tornado-ravaged portions of Mississippi. OBTW, one the readers' letters posted today is a first-hand account of traversing the aftermath.

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Because of some manufacturing difficulties, one of the prizes for the First Place winner of the writing contest has been changed. Instead of a A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit, the folks at Safecastle.com are substituting a 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator. (A $275 value.) We greatly appreciate the generous support of all of the companies that provide writing contest prizes!

Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com. (A $275 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

If you are concerned about hiding a large amount of goods from looters, neighbors or other busybodies, remember that no indoor hiding place is likely to survive a determined search. If your home is the only place you have food and provisions, you may be forced to fight against very long odds to try to keep it. If you are forced to abandon your home in the middle of the night or burned out by looters, you might appreciate having a store of food and other gear in a safe, undetectable location where you can recover it. You might want to consider constructing a series of permanent underground caches. Underground is the safest place to hide something, but the most difficult to construct. There is no such thing as permanent, of course, but you can come pretty close if you follow a few rules and take a little care.

I have 3 large caches that I buried over the course of the last year. Having three redundant cache sites is pretty excessive, I know, but forgive me my excesses. I had the materials and the surplus supplies, so I used them. They cost very little to stock the way I do it and I had almost everything on hand anyway. They are cheap to construct if you can borrow or rent earth moving machinery and hey, you know what we say, two is one and one is none. Having three of them gives me more tactical options if I ever need them. I went a little overboard on waterproofing too because I was learning as I went along and found very little practical information on the web to help. I will pass on the procedures I used because they worked, and try to point out some of the stupid errors I made along the way.

The biggest problem with burying things is water. Soil is mostly permeable to water and may hold moisture year round. This will cause containers to rust away or otherwise degrade. Moisture inside your cache container can be a disaster causing rust and rot. If you can get around this problem, underground hiding places are excellent. They are temperature stable and very secure.

For containers, you need something extremely durable, and physically strong (to resist ground pressure), and completely rat-proof. You probably can't waterproof your container well enough to prevent moisture from accumulating inside it, so you will need to put it somewhere dry and allow it to stay that way by diverting water away from it. You are shooting for a sort of man-made cave where your goods can stay dry and at a relatively constant temperature for decades.

Plastic buckets can work for small, temporary caches, but are unsuitable for unattended storage of longer than a few weeks. I feel that eventually, rodents will find any container you bury and if it's not rodent proof, you will have rat damage. For long term, storage you will want something much bigger, stronger and rodent-proof. I feel that (New) Steel drums are an excellent choice for this. They are strong, water tight, and resist corrosion well. If you can get these, they are probably the easiest and best container. An even larger container can be made of road culvert if you can seal off the ends with rat-proof doors or panels. You could probably also use galvanized trash bins, or old refrigerators and other appliances, but these are less durable than an industrial drum and could collapse if driven over by a vehicle.

These containers can be buried almost anywhere the terrain and soil is suitable, but should be located in a place where nobody is likely to suspect anything of value is located. A hay field away from any public road, public grazing lands, forestry service lands, power cuts, or almost any scrub lands are ideal. There are endless possibilities. You can even bury these in your back yard or under a building if you wish. Bury it deep enough to ensure the top is under ground by at least 6 inches (a foot seems better to me and more temperature stable). Moving this much dirt around is pretty much insanity without a backhoe or other earth moving machinery, so avoid using large culvert unless you can bury them without attracting attention. If you must hand-dig, you should probably use a smaller container, like a drum. I started excavating by hand but that didn't last very long. I dug for two hours and didn't seem to make much of a dent in the ground. A back-hoe is definitely the way to go, but only if you can keep your cache sites a strict secret.

The key things you need to look for in a cache site are:

1. Deep water table and good drainage. This is a huge problem in my area and finding a good site is difficult. Your container will not be completely water tight and will quickly fill with water if your site is wrong. I determined this by testing two sites using plastic pails. The side of a gentle slope works pretty well. Avoid low ground that could collect rain run-off. If your soil is wet all the time, you are going to have to use a very large piece of plastic sheeting to divert water and protect your cache. The soil should ideally be dry year round once you get a couple of feet down. If not, you may still be ok if you use enough plastic to divert surface water around your cache. You can test your site by loading a cache drum or (perforated) bucket with a little cotton cloth (I used a couple of white bath towels), bury it using the same techniques you will use for your cache and leave it a year or at least leave it through your local wet season. When you dig it up and inspect, there should be no water damage to the towels and no evidence of water on the inside of the drum. One of my pails (buried in a flat, sort of wet forest floor) flooded in spite of the plastic sheeting, but the one buried into a slope had no sign of moisture at all. The ground water had passed over the top of the sheet and left the soil underneath dry.

Some regions have the opposite problem. Trying to cache anything deeply in Arizona, for instance hits rock-hard clay a foot deep. Even with a pick it's almost impossible to dig through. If your soil bottoms out in caliche clay or bedrock, underground storage may not be for you. Even if you manage to blast your way down deep enough, water is likely to gather there when it rains and flood your site. There, drainage is almost non-existent.

2. Remote or at least hidden location. Nobody can know you have hidden something there. Security is key. If anyone knows you have buried something, you will probably lose your cache. Your site should have a hidden approach and egress route to facilitate recovery. Ideally, it should be in an area where people simply won't go. There should be nothing nearby that could draw people to the area like water or game or even fire-wood. If you use earth moving machinery, you need to do it where nobody will wonder why and investigate.

3. Room to bury your containers between trees or other obstacles without leaving signs that you were there. You may need several drums to cache all your gear and supplies. In the case of a big cache, you will want room to move earth-moving machinery around the site. Digging through thick roots by hand is soul-destroying work. Make it easy on yourself and find a nicer place to dig, or rent a back-hoe.

Choose your sites with great care and the rest is easy. The general procedure is simple. Bury the drum or culvert laying on it's side and before you replace the sod or leaf litter, pack dirt around the drum and then lay down a generous portion of heavy plastic sheeting. Cover the sheet with a foot of soil and replace the sod or leaf litter. With the sod layer in place, the cache will be undetectable without a metal detector in a few weeks.

What should you include in your cache for permanent storage and how do you pack it?

Waterproof each item separately as if it were going underwater, if possible. All foods stored underground should be canned in enameled cans or glass jars. Glass is fragile, but won't ever rust away, even if your cache leaks. If you go this route as I did, add an oxygen absorber and dip the lids in paraffin to waterproof them and your jars should last virtually forever. To minimize breakage, you can wrap each jar in newspaper, or tie them into the legs of pants or wrap them in other clothing, like sweaters and jackets. This seems wasteful of space, but you may be glad you included extra the clothing later. Whatever you use, I recommend you pad your jars excessively. If your disaster turns out to be an earthquake, you will be glade you did and newspaper is cheap. Loading your cache should probably be done at the site if you use glass. Too much rattling around will cause breakage. If you can pack the container very tight and fill all the free space with cloth or paper, it may ride in the back of a truck, but I can't recommend this. Each drum will be very heavy when loaded.

Contents: The purpose of these caches (for me) are to be stand-alone survival kits for long term sustainment. Each one should assume that this is the only supply you will have. That way, if you need to bug-out and leave all your gear behind, you can re-supply, even if all of your sites but one are compromised. I know that's a tall order, but try to store only items that will be hard to get after TEOTWAWKI or very likely to be needed. It can be done rather cheaply if you take a minimalist approach and leave out the frills.

Food: (The most important thing to store)
All of the foods stored in this type of long term cache should be dry goods with very long shelf lives. I store mostly wheat and beans, with some white rice, salt and white sugar. I also include some garlic powder, vitamin C crystals, peppercorns and cinnamon. That's it. I don't even try to store baking powder since it won't last more than a few years. You really can't store anything in here that you will want to rotate. Digging these things up often is a bad idea. Not only could you give away your cache location, but loosening the dirt around them every year may cause them to take on water. I recommend inspecting each cache infrequently. I checked all of my caches after a year and took one completely apart to check the weapons and clothing integrity. They were all bone dry (and the weapons were still greasy and unchanged). I hike by each of them every few weeks to see if the area has been disturbed, but I doubt if I will dig them up again for several years. I don't feel the need.

Weapons:
Before you start trying to store a whole armory, ask yourself two questions: "If this is the only weaponry I have available, can I get by?" and "Do I really need to store this?" Your answers will be different from mine, but try to minimize your weapons. Every cubic inch you use for weapons is space you won't have for food or clothing or other vital supplies. All weapons are costly and if you spend a lot on them, you are really going to get your feelings hurt if one of them rusts solid or gets stolen by a construction crew that accidentally digs up your cache. Keep it simple, cheap and expendable. Almost any old surplus military rifle is ideal for this kind of storage, but your choice is your own.

I chose two inexpensive weapons for each of my caches and a small amount of ammunition: I chose an SKS carbine because I had several of these and like them. I bought several at $130 each a few years ago. I fired them to confirm the iron sight's zero and was planning to sell them or store them for hard times. When I decided to store them underground, I cleaned three of them well, took them apart and packed them in automotive grease in a cotton sheet and enclosed the whole thing in plastic. The bores, chambers and mechanisms including the trigger mechanisms are literally packed solid in grease. The whole assembly is then dropped into a section of 8 inch PVC pipe with a moisture absorbing silica gel pack and the cap glued on with pipe glue. It's just that simple.

In each cache I also store a .38 revolver with 6 inch bbl. I got a deal on these for $190 each, but they were almost as expensive as the food I stored. If I had it to do over, I would probably not bother storing pistols, or use ones I already had. They are all good quality weapons, police surplus, packed in grease and wrapped in cotton before sealing them in plastic bags. Are they ideal? Not even close, but they are all serviceable handguns and adequate for my purposes. This pistol will fit neatly into the PVC container with the carbine, or you can hedge your bets and prepare a separate container for it out of a short section of 6 inch pipe. The pipe container that I have checked didn't seem to change even after a year of storage. I used a quality (Quaker state) automotive grease and it looked pretty much the same a year later.

I also stored ammunition and other metal objects the same way, but my ammo is sealed by itself. I don't think exposure to grease or solvents is harmful to ammo, but why take chances? My ammo is sealed in glass jars and well padded before sealing in a pipe section. I chose to store 20 loaded stripper clips of 7.62x39 FMJ and 50 loose rounds of .38+P 158gr lead SWC hollow points. In two of my caches, I also included a couple of speed loaders and a holster, almost as an afterthought. I forgot to include a cleaning kit and need to add that sometime.

I have a sheath knife and a Machete stored at each site for chores. Both are greased and sealed with the firearms. The only metal tools I store outside of a PVC container are a short handled shovel and a small pick which I threw in after oiling them. Neither of these tools had changed much after a year, but the oil had evaporated or dried up.

Clothing and bedding:
Each cache site has 2 sleeping bags and 4 blankets, all polyester. Why? Besides being cheap, polyester can sit for years under water and still come out functional. Polyester is sensitive to sunlight, but not water. Besides that, I got a deal on them. I wrapped each sleeping bag in a 10x12 poly tarp and 550 cord to make a shelter out of if needed and seal the whole thing in a plastic trash bag. I bought the poly tarp new and I probably should have left it in the plastic bag it came with.

Each cache has some "Goodwill" clothes, new underwear, socks and a pair of my old army boots stored in plastic bags inside a couple of plastic boxes. For my wife, I bought new sneakers. she is not the boot type. These clothes are the most vulnerable part of the cache and cannot survive water submersion. So far, none of them have been harmed by underground storage.

A .50 ammo can holds a first aid kit (I know, these have a limited shelf life), Grain mill (dismantled), lighter, matches two (polyester) hammocks and a small supply of bug repellent, Leatherman tool, Polar Pur water treatment crystals, a small water filter and other sundries. I have toyed with including some cash or gold in this ammo can, since I have space, but opted instead to stuff some more socks and underwear in it. You might want to place a few silver or gold coins in the can, just in case. This can and the contents were bought new and represents a lot of the money I spent to build these caches. Just the water filters and grain mills were around $60 each. You can probably skimp a little on the sundries and still have a viable kit, but I got a little giddy while I was shopping. Be careful what you choose for water purification. Bleach bleeds through most containers in time and will rust all the metal around it and so will iodine. My Polar Pur crystals are still sealed and haven't leaked yet. Next time I open the caches I intend to remove the Polar Pur bottles from my ammo can, just in case.

Each of my caches also contain two cheap stock pots, a camping mess kit, some utensils, hobo stove and a collapsible 5 gallon jug for potable water. In my last two caches, I added a couple of 5 gallon buckets because they are so useful and I had the space. These buckets contain wheat, but I don't yet know if it will go bad. (It survived the first year).

Building the sites:
Since I was unable to easily get new industrial drums, I went with galvanized road culvert. Three foot diameter culvert is expensive if new, but you might be able to salvage something like this from a construction site. That's what I did. I got three sections of 8 foot culvert for the price of cutting it up and was able to use them all, even though one is dented slightly and a little shorter. Culvert is probably a lot more trouble than drums, but drums are expensive and you will need several per cache site. The companies I contacted didn't even want to give me a quote on six drums. I think most people who sell new drums deal in volume. So I gave up and looked for something else, in this case 3 ft diameter road culvert. Smaller diameter culvert would probably work just as well and would be a lot easier to bury and haul around. If I were doing this over I would choose one foot diameter culvert no more than 4 or 5 feet long and use a lot of them.

To prepare a culvert as a long term cache, you need to rat-proof it. I used two sheet metal panels cut from an old refrigerator and held by stainless steel 1/8th inch bolts. The panel was cut to fit the corrugation very closely and held in place by two lengths of angle iron bolted to the culvert. There are a lot of ways to do this, I just had some angle iron and sheet metal lying around and threw it together. I highly recommend you arrange some kind of door instead. A door would be much more convenient for inspecting the cache. The method I chose means I have to uncover each bolt head by digging a lot more dirt from underneath the culvert than would be needed with a door. Further, a welded on door would probably be much stronger and tighter. My panels have about 1/8th inch open space between the sheet metal and the culvert wall, not very tight. I also lined my first two culvert bottoms with mixed sand and cat litter, but I don't really know what I was thinking. This step is unnecessary and I almost broke my back doing it. To load the culvert with supplies, it's easiest to work from both ends and then close it up. On my first site, I buried one end and then tried to load it, (bad planning). Since most of my storage containers are tubes or round, I stack my supplies on their sides. Most of the space is taken up with 1/2 gallon glass jars full of wheat or other foods. Each jar is padded with clothing or newspaper.

Beware, culvert pipe weighs a lot. I was able to bury and man-handle mine into position all alone, but I used a borrowed Bobcat earth mover and a winch to do it. (Be very careful not to make chain marks on nearby trees if you use a winch. Pad the trees to avoid damaging the bark.) If you try to bury one of these by hand, you will probably die of exhaustion before you get the hole dug. Digging a 5 foot x 14 foot trench is a lot of work, even with machinery. Once you have your hole, you can load and seal your cache and then cover it over with at least a foot of dirt. Pack the dirt in tightly around your culvert or drums. This prevents the dirt from settling later and allowing water to drain in.

Lay a sheet of heavy plastic over the site, after packing in the drums with fill dirt. You can buy rolls of heavy plastic at any hardware store.
Get at least 6 mil plastic and it should hold up for many years. The plastic should be under at least a few inches of soil and positioned to re-route water under the soil surface so it won't seep into your cache. The sod should placed back over the whole thing. Replace as much ground cover as possible to camouflage the site and get rid of any machine marks or tracks. If you did a good job of choosing and sealing your site, the inside is surprisingly dry and temperature stable.

I highly recommend adding an inventory sheet near one of the ends. Without mine I would have had no idea what I was looking at or what I stored by the time I cracked open the cache.

One last challenge: Excess dirt. You are going to have to figure out how to dispose of a lot of dirt. I didn't anticipate this. I used a Bobcat [earth mover] to move a lot of it over the site and scatter it, but I still had to load a lot of it in my truck bed and haul it away. I took it to a low area and dumped it. But this is a lot of work. I did the same thing at all three sites since I had no better solution. I don't recommend leaving a huge pile of dirt next to your cache for obvious reasons. Think it through before you start and you will have more fun than I did.

Conclusion: I have used temporary underground and underwater caches for years in the military, so I suspected a long term cache could be constructed, but until I tried it, I was still a little apprehensive. After inspecting all three sites and checking one of them thoroughly, I have lost much of my trepidation. If you take care to protect everything from moisture and vermin, you can store supplies underground for extended periods. If you live in a place where you are likely to be looted, beat them to the punch and hide it first. When the looters come to call, they will find the cupboard bare. - JIR

Dear Editor:
I have been reading your blog for a while but until Saturday, I never saw how a disaster could unhinge some people so quickly and what lack of preparedness can do to some people.

I went to deliver a chainsaw, some gas and water to a relative in Yazoo City and what is usually a 45 minute drive took over 2 hours. Land lines and cell towers were down, and if you had a phone with a certain carrier, the service was very spotty. The traffic was bad and the roads into the town were blocked and we were turned away twice by a motley group of authorities but mostly State police. One local deputy was sympathetic and told us a way to get in the town that was 35 miles out of our way and we eventually got close to the north side of town and we had to drive over live power lines and swerve around transformers. We got to the entrance of town and there were two State troopers blocking the exit but we told them we were delivering some supplies and they let us through. Eventually, we reached the home and there were trees and power lines everywhere. No power, no gas lines, homes and cars crushed, etc. One generator was being shared by neighbors and gas was being siphoned out of boats and cars to power it. There was one electric chainsaw that was plugged into the generator.

Things to note were that the authorities were very stressed out and not experienced with this kind of devastation and there were many people who tried to get to loved ones or family that couldn't get past the road blocks. Some people just left their cars on the sides of the road and were allowed to walk into town. One lady drove around the roadblock and was chased by a cop car. There were people panicking and the Red Cross got there and all they were doing was handing out water bottles. The power company was only responsible for getting the trees off the power lines. You could see people just staring at their crushed homes and houses wondering what to do. There were cops on four wheeler ATVs just riding around and eventually the National Guard showed up but they were just driving around.

Some lessons learned:

No one is getting into town right after a disaster

Have a big chainsaw and make sure there are no trees in your yard

Have a four-wheeler and a 15 foot trailer to haul out pieces of debris from your home/yard

Have a siphon and a generator

Know how to turn off your gas in your home because live wires and natural gas don't mix

Know beforehand that the authorities are not there to help you but to maintain order and the power company is not going to cut down that tree that is now in your dining room.

Brick homes fare better than stick ones

Anticipate that neighbors are going to freak out and run around like chickens with their heads cut off and try to do silly things like get in their cars and drive over debris in the road and get stuck and pop their tires.

Have gloves and chains in your truck and keep a full tank of gas at all times. Some people ran out of gas in the traffic.

Realize that tensions are going to be high and seeing weird things like one group of people having a barbecue and getting drunk and across the street one family was sitting on the lawn waiting for help is a recipe for a bad situation. I saw a kid in the road trying to flag us down and there were some guys leaning up against a house a bit out of sight. We just drove around him. I couldn't believe that it was already getting strange and the tornado was only a few hours earlier.

So in a nutshell, that was my experience and one more thing, the tornado hit so fast that the siren didn't give enough warning. And what was worse, people are conditioned to think the siren means thunderstorm or it could be a test or something else. So no one was prepared until they heard the freight train sound and with no one having basements in Mississippi, there isn't really a safe place to be.

Sincerely, - James H.

James,
I have ten of the DeWalt 18 VDC power tools and four of the batteries. This is an excellent product line that has proven much better than some of the older 12 volt and corded tools that they replaced. The impact driver, circular saw, and reciprocating saw have already proven to be very useful. These are excellent survival tools because you can get a lot of work done with them and a good set of 3 or 4 batteries without needing [120 VAC utility] power. DeWalt sells almost all of their 18 VDC power tools as "tool only" kits that have just the tool without the batteries and charger. These offers are usually about 1/2 the cost of the standard package that includes a plastic case, one or two batteries, and a charger. Once you have your first tool or two, you really do not need to pay for more batteries or chargers. For example, my first DeWalt 18 VDC tool was the hammer drill with a charger and two of the Li-Ion batteries. This cost about $325 at Home Depot. The bare tool version of the same tool costs $139.99 at Northern Tool & Equipment. [Use their Search box with the phrase "DeWalt tool only".] They have some of the best prices and offer free shipping on DeWalt power tools. You can also get good prices on refurbished or reconditioned 18 VDC Dewalt "tool only" buys, for even less, including some like the 18 volt nailer that are not otherwise available as bare tools. - Dr. R.

A preview of Things to Come, for the U.S. of A?: Iceland reports record 34 percent inflation

Portuguese Five-Year CDS at Record High, Spread Wider. Can you spell D-E-F-A-U-L-T, boys and girls? (Our thanks to Brad F. for the link.)

RBS sent this: Forget 10% Unemployment, The Real Job Loss Pain Number is 54%

Amy R. sent this: U.S. Food Inflation Spiraling Out of Control

Courtesy of frequent content contributor Jeff B.: 10 Cities Facing a Double Whammy of Default Risks

Thanks to Mark G. for flagging this: The Housing Crash Has Just Started; Get set for falling prices again. Round two is about to begin.

Items from The Economatrix:

Greek Bond Market Crash, Greek Budget Deficit Worse Than Feared

Marc Faber Says Holding Cash Will Be A Disaster, Investors Should Accumulate Gold

Why are US Stocks an the US Dollar Rising?

The Devaluation of the US Dollar, Gold's Springboard

US Housing Market Crash Update, There's a World of Pain Ahead

Financial Reform Bill Will Devastate US Economy

US in the Midst of the Greater Depression, Fourth Turning Generational Crisis

Life in the Big City: Multiple Pedestrians Ignore Dying New York Hero. No comment necessary! Draw your own conclusions about where you choose to live.

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Anyone interested in getting ready for a post Peak Oil world should check out Transition US Social Network. Much like the excellent LATOC Forums (which I've mentioned in SurvivalBlog many times), there is some lively discussion there. They even had a big discussion about the legitimacy and motives of Survivalists, early last year.

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K.S. suggested this article: Crisis, Martial Law, and Black Market Operation - which in my estimation has applicability to other barter situations.

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Chris P. sent this gem: Build Your Own Cellular Network

"The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, [It will be] fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, [It will be] foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O [ye] hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not [discern] the signs of the times?" - Matthew 16:1-3 (KJV)

Baen Books will soon release the new science fiction anthology "Citizens" edited by John Ringo. All of the authors are not only veteran sci-fi writers, but also military veterans. They include Jerry Pournelle, Keith Laumer, Arthur C. Clarke, David Drake, Joe Haldeman and Robert Heinlein, along with several newer writers, including Survivalblog's Editor at Large Michael Z. Williamson.

---

Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Anyone following my blog might get the sense that I'm independently wealthy due to all the fruit and nut trees that I've planted this year alone. Any person making that assumption would be wrong, I'm simply very cheap. Doing a rough estimate, I've come to the conclusion that over 60 perennial fruit and nut trees, vines and bushes have cost me somewhere just south of $250. When you look at a big name nursery catalog and do the math, I've avoided costs of close to $1000.

In the spirit of teaching and helping us, as Americans and people, I'd like to share some of my secrets to gathering the plants necessary to start a food forest that will sustain you and yours for many years to come.

1. Free trees from nature.

This one is the least expensive method but it is also the one that is the hardest and least accessible for some of us. The fact remains that the plants that grow best are either native species or invasive persistent species. For example, throughout much of the country persimmon trees grow wild. While is isn't feasible or advisable to try and dig up a 10 foot tree (or larger), there are ways to get seedlings with this knowledge.

The method is as follows: Between late spring and early fall find land in which persimmons may be thought to reside and convince your way onto the property. Beforehand, gather as much intelligence on the tree species as possible. Know what the shape of the tree is. Does it grow in a pyramid shape or does it spread? Know the leaf shape and habit. Know when it sets fruit. KNOW EVERYTHING POSSIBLE. Search the property for a large tree and then making spiraling circles outward, find smaller specimens. In most if not all cases the leaves and bark will be similar or the same as the larger tree. The tree make reproduce through simple fruit and nut drop or through suckering. Suckering is the act of tree reproduction through root sprout growth. Either way, the offspring remain somewhat close to the parent in proximity.

This next step is important. Resist the urge to take shovel to dirt. Simply mark the tree. Moving it when it has leaves on it or even worse--fruit--is foolhardy at best. What you want to do at this point is to mark the tree and wait until it turns dormant which in the case of deciduous trees is late fall through early spring (with variances). The marking can be done with contractor flags or any other device that will persist through weather and the elements.

When the dormant time comes, go back and dig the tree up. If the tree is small enough, the roots can be gently cleaned of dirt and wrapped in a very damp newspaper or placed in a bucket of water. If the tree is large, the entire root ball can be removed, dirt and all and potted until time to plant.

2. Free trees from the grocery or market.

In the case of some stone fruits such as peaches and apricots, seedlings can be grown from the fruit pits. It should be noted however that only some of these offspring may not be true to type. In other words you may not get an Elberta peach from the pit of an Elberta peach (but lots of times you will). [JWR Adds: Because of the time and effort required to grow a seedling to fruit-bearing age, you must weigh the cost/benefit ratio. Generally, for most of us, it is best to expend some cash to start with "known good stock", rather than invest your sweat equity is raising a bunch of "maybe" hybrid seedlings!]

The process is as follows:

Remove the pit from the fruit and let it dry. Crack the pit carefully and remove the seed. Stratify the seed. Stratification is the act of replicating the cold damp conditions of winter with the seed by placing it in a cold damp environment such as a refrigerator (or simply letting nature do it). Then the seed can either sprout in place or be placed in sterile medium to do so.

The best article I've found for doing this is located here.

Whether you transplant existing trees or grow new ones from seed, you really should plant them before the dormant stage ends. That means early spring. Though some people do have luck planting in late fall.

3. Cheap trees from your state.

Many many people are unaware that many states have a forestry division that sells trees at extremely affordable prices. For example, I recently purchased 20 Pecan seedlings and 20 Pawpaw seedlings for less than $50 from Kentucky's Forestry Division.

Please be aware that my state fills out of state orders at their discretion. You should check with your local forestry division first. You can generally find your state's by typing "(your state's name) forestry" into any Internet search engine.

The best part is that these trees are native to your state and grown in your state, making them ideal for your conditions.

4. Cheap trees from Arbor Day.

It is no secret that The Arbor Day Foundation deals in trees. What is lesser known though is the fact that Arbor Day sells fruit trees. These trees are extremely affordable through a $5 membership which pays itself back very quickly. I recently purchased standard apple and plum trees from ArborDay.org for less than $10 each.

5. Cheap trees from the big name nurseries.

Wait, didn't I say above that doing so would be expensive? Yes I did. However all rules have exceptions.

Gurney's and Henry Fields send out catalogs with $20 off $40 purchases throughout the season. I find and take advantage of these offers. But even if you miss them you can search "Gurneys Discount Code" through a search engine and find a working code with a little work. Punch it into the checkout box and voila! cheap trees.

In conclusion, growing a food forest doesn't have to be a huge up front investment. For the clever and thrifty, an orchard can be had for pennies on the dollar. I hope some of the things I've learned can benefit others looking for food independence. I'm sure my readers have their own methods. How do you obtain inexpensive trees?

Hi Mr. Rawles,
Here's an interesting article I just came across: Bunker Mentality: The Ultimate Underground Shelter.

This is the web site for the company: Terra Vivos.

I guess this concept was inevitable and I would expect that more companies would get into this business. While I don't fault anyone from wanting to be prepared, I just see tremendous logistical problems that I doubt would be surmountable. It also seems to me that these "McBunkers" might represent a large bullseye target from opportunists.

Take care, - BB

JWR Replies: I agree! Be very wary of large scale commercial ventures with a high public profile, folks! Even if they are entirely legit, there is still the risk that they will end up on the post-Schumer shopping list for some One-Percenter biker gang.

J. Rawles:
My wife and I have the chance to buy a farm in the Toledo [southern] district of Belize. With our savings, and [with] what we net out of selling [our house] in San Diego, I can afford to pay cash for it. I really feel the need to "Get Outta Dodge". The farm has two springs and a creek. I'm self-employed. I write software, freelance, mostly for my former employer. I earn around $80K per year. That [much income] is considered a fortune [in Belize.] I speak decent Spanish, and my wife is fully fluent [in Spanish]. (She has relatives in Belize--and one, her uncle, will be our next-door neighbor!) So, if I do "go ex-pat", what are the tax implications? Thanking You in Advance, - Pete in San Diego

JWR Replies: The first $91,400 per year that you earn (or $182,800 for a husband and wife, filing a joint return) overseas is exempt from US Federal income tax ("foreign earned income"). But this is only if you meet a few conditions--most notably that the portion of your income that is exempt can't be interest income or royalty income, and that you spend less than 30 days each year visiting the United States. (You must be a qualified "foreign resident.") For details, see the IRS web page links on the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) page and the instructions for IRS Form 2555. May God bless you and your family, in your upcoming move!

Dear James:
As a builder, I rely on 120 VAC current for everything, including charging the dozen or so cordless tool batteries that we use daily. I recently purchased a DeWalt 12VDC "car charger" and am in the process of streamlining my cordless tool collection. I have a bunch of different tools and batteries from a variety of manufacturers, which I'm liquidating. In going to an all-DeWalt power tool collection, I now have the ability to charge all of my batteries (regardless of voltage) from a PV panel and voltage- regulated jump pack. I'm sure other tool manufacturers offer car chargers for their batteries too. In an extended grid down situation, I'll still have plenty of operational tools, lights, and a radio as well. Thanks for all you do, - AdamElk

JWR Replies: I agree that cordless power tools made by Dewalt using 18 volt batteries are a good choice, especially if you get the ones with their latest "Nano" lithium ion battery technology. (The lithium ion batteries are still bit expensive for now, but I expect those prices to continue to fall, with the economies of scale. )

Karen H. sent this indicator that food price inflation is beginning: Wholesale prices rise in March as food costs jump.

GG flagged this: Governments Will 'Bankrupt Us': Marc Faber

Some interesting commentary by our friend Commander Zero: Guns as investments

Items from The Economatrix:

Are Interest Rate Derivatives a Ticking Time Bomb?

Senate Panel Approves Derivatives Reform Bill. And for the inevitable back pedaling, here is press release from a Nebraska Senator's office on the legislation. (Thanks to M.E. for the latter link).

School Districts Around the Country Warn of Deeper Teacher Cuts

Job Seekers Too Picky?

Demand for US Made Durable Goods Tumble 1.3% as Orders for New Aircraft Plunged 67%

A Look at Global Economic Developments

14 Risks of Holding US Government Treasury Bonds

Will Gold be Bolstered by the Goldman Sachs Fraud Case?

Andrew B. suggested this analysis from the folks at Stratfor: Dirty Bombs Revisited: Combating the Hype

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Reader Bret F. flagged this: Death of 'Caveman' ends an era in Idaho. Oh, and here is a link to a video clip about him: Diggin' Dugout Dick in Idaho. OBTW, I highly recommend the book Last of the Mountain Men by Harold Peterson, about Sylvan Hart (aka "Buckskin Bill") who lived up in the River of No Return hinterboonies. Sylvan Hart epitomized true self-sufficiency, and was a genuine character. I would have liked to have met him.

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Volcanism expert Barry Weaver (a professor at Oklahoma University) is scheduled to be a guest on Lan Lamphere's Overnight AM show on Monday night.

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EMB liked this piece at Instructables: Turn a wine barrel into an outdoor sink

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K. in Vermont suggested this: How olive oil helps 'switch off' genes which lead to conditions including heart disease and arthritis

A preview of Things to Come, for the U.S. of A?: Iceland reports record 34 percent inflation

Portuguese Five-Year CDS at Record High, Spread Wider. Can you spell D-E-F-A-U-L-T, boys and girls? (Our thanks to Brad F. for the link.)

RBS sent this: Forget 10% Unemployment, The Real Job Loss Pain Number is 54%

Amy R. sent this: U.S. Food Inflation Spiraling Out of Control

Courtesy of frequent content contributor Jeff B.: 10 Cities Facing a Double Whammy of Default Risks

Thanks to Mark G. for flagging this: The Housing Crash Has Just Started; Get set for falling prices again. Round two is about to begin.

Items from The Economatrix:

Greek Bond Market Crash, Greek Budget Deficit Worse Than Feared

Marc Faber Says Holding Cash Will Be A Disaster, Investors Should Accumulate Gold

Why are US Stocks an the US Dollar Rising?

The Devaluation of the US Dollar, Gold's Springboard

US Housing Market Crash Update, There's a World of Pain Ahead

Financial Reform Bill Will Devastate US Economy

US in the Midst of the Greater Depression, Fourth Turning Generational Crisis

"If you are in the hip pocket of any political party, prepare to be sat on." - Dr. Gary North

Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Most people find themselves looking at TEOTWAWKI as some sort of extended outdoorsy jaunt. Some people think of it as hard times. Me, I think it could be both, and then again it could be near mass extinction. But to make any type of sensible decision as to disaster preparation, you have to determine what is truly important. So let me simplify things for those of you all wadded up in bugout vehicles and plans for where to go and what ammo and guns are best to "protect yourself".

First, if you are dead, then you will no longer care. Game over, "DNF" and end of the line. So item one is your life. If you have family, then there is more reason to stay alive, as they will likely need you. Simple first question: do you want to get in a firefight over your home with someone? Frankly, I can live without my home, so easy decision. [JWR Adds: That might be the case in the cities and the suburbs, where a house is just a glorified box. But for many of us that have already relocated to the boonies, our homes represent our self-sufficient livelihood, since we've painstakingly built up stored firewood, gardens, orchards, vineyards, and flocks. In some situations giving that up would be akin to giving up your clothes in a blizzard.] What about my vehicle? Ditto - can live and survive without it. Pride? Pecking order? All ego-baloney that can get you in bad situations and get you killed. Avoiding confrontation is the key to not getting injured or shot. There is always someone with a bigger gun or a sharper knife or younger and faster than you.

The single best thing you can have as a survival tool is knowledge. Skills come from knowledge and can be taught and learned. But your best tool is your noggin and what you have packed away inside it. Read - test - trial - learn - practice - experiment. Use your brain to make yourself capable of surviving.

Guns? Honestly, you will be able to trade a copy of ‘How to reload cartridges without a reloading press’ for a gun if serious SHTF. Likewise, you can probably think of other things you know how to do that are essentials which are easily worth a gun or just a meal or a stay in someone’s camp. Can you make a mold from river clay and cast bullets? Can you fix a generator? Do you know how to get casing head drip from an oil well Christmas tree and use it for fuel? Do you even know if there are oil wells or gas wells near you? Do you know how to make pine tar? How can you make a simple pump to pull water from a well without electricity? Can you cure and store meat without refrigeration? The historical knowledge lists is long, but go back to the 1800s and do some research. If TSHTF, electricity is likely the first casualty, whether it is from catastrophe or switched off by runaway government whackos. Hurricane Ike was a nice practice run for us here in Texas, where many of us were without juice for over a week during the summer.

If TSHTF, the first thing to collapse will be corporations, as they are all about one thing - money. And money isn't worth anything when survival is at stake. During Hurricane Ike, people skipped work to leave town or rig up for the storm. If it is something much worse, then work will be "out of the window" for most corporate critters. We are much more worried about our families and our "stuff".

Realize that if you know where to look and how your little neck of the woods is set up, you can find resources to survive well rather than trying to tote all you need on your back. Take a drive and look around at what will be there when nobody gives a d**n about going in to work. Excess gear makes you a slow moving and appealing target for anti-social urban whackadoos with a 9mm and a couple of magazines. People only rob from those that have something they covet, so keep your goodies minimal, versatile and simple.

Think like a sailor - minimize material resources you consider absolute essentials and get what you need between your ears where you can live off whatever is at hand. Simplify - simplify - and then simplify again. I hate to get all twisted up in trying to outline all the possibilities - there are far too many. Know that whatever it is will likely be in some form or other we were not expecting in all our planning. Lower your expectations as much as you can - imagine it very uncomfortable, because if it comes to a choice between living or retaining some comfort, I am all about living.

Remember - Murphy's Law rules when TSHTF. The best capital for barter is knowledge - it weighs nothing, sells high and is viable currency when you have customers who need it. Skills run a very close second, but which ones are most valuable depend on what happens. Growing veggies will not matter if we nuke each other or California slides into the Pacific or Yellowstone erupts. Besides - if you can't grow beans you are likely doomed anyway, unless you are a doctor or nurse with practical field knowledge. But again, this is knowledge - and it will trade anywhere it is needed.

That's about as detailed as I think I need to dig into this. If you cannot wrap your mind around what I am saying, then you are unaware of the world you are living in and you honestly have not been reading your history enough. Read - learn - use your imagination. Know your own history and learn things that are practical, valuable and important to survival alone and in a group.

Lone wolves have lots of trouble surviving - that's why they naturally form into packs. The reason we are top species on this ball of dirt is our brains. That is what may make it possible for us humans to survive cataclysm where dinosaurs could not: think!

[JWR Adds: In my estimation, a large quantity of gear and consumables will be an asset, rather than a hindrance. As long as it is kept hidden and left unmentioned except to your most trusted friends, a deep larder can be a tremendous asset. It will carry your family through hard times, and also give you the opportunity to be covertly charitable. I also believe that it is naive to expect to be able to trade a book for a gun,--or even a huge pile of books for a gun. In a societal collapse, guns will be a precious commodity. It would take massive depopulation before they'd ever become "cheap."

Sir:
The recent post on battery rejuvenation touts a $200 unit, but the reality is that electronic battery [pulse] desulfators for 12V batteries are widely available for as little as $25 and they do just as well. (Check eBay for the phrase 'battery desulfator' and for more info on units, Google search the term.) The devices I believe originated in the Army decades ago and they operate by taking a little of the battery DC and changing it to AC impulses that break down lead sulfate crystals by hitting them at a resonant frequency of the molecule. This may operate by a piezoelectric kind of effect that mechanically vibrates the crystals to self-wear them down..In any event, if a battery is not shorted out internally but is one that's developed a high resistance coatings of crystals on the plates, this can add life. If one has electronics construction skills, you also can buy inexpensive kits for building rejuvenators. Be aware that rejuvenation takes a lot of time to take effect, sometimes on the order of weeks. The kit units can be left on working batteries to keep them from developing sulfation in the future, but eventually normal lead shedding will kill off many batteries, especially if it creates internal shorts. Then, charging current will merely heat up the short and do nothing else worthwhile. - Bert K.

Reader RBS sent this: Government goes high-tech to redesign $100 bills. RBS warns that with each currency change, there is the risk of the advent of a blocked currency. "That is where there is one variety of note for Domestic use only and one species for foreign use." JWR Adds: It is noteworthy that U.S. Postal Service Money Orders are already marked "Valid only in the U.S. and Possessions." Currency controls are coming, folks!

Alasdair sent this: Greek debt crisis gets worse as EU revises figures

Items from The Economatrix:

If The US Economy Falls Will It Result In A Complete And Total Collapse Of Society?

Enjoy The Recovery While it Lasts, Inflation, Global Conflicts are Coming

Summer Fuel Price Outlook

US Faces Second Lost Depression, Why This Recession Is Different And What To Do About It

Escalating Greek Default Fears Rock Europe's Debt Markets

Insight's into America's Disneyland and Our "Neo-Feudalistic, Gulag Casino Economy"

Wholesale Prices Rise in March as Food Costs Jump

Yes, our modern global society is now very inter-twingled: Volcano Ash Cloud Sets Off Global Domino Effect; Lack of Flights Entering, Departing Europe Stalls Africa War Crimes Investigation, Halts Japanese Auto Production. (Thanks to Robert B. for the link.)

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Chris Y. suggested this article at Trailspace: Human Waste Disposal in the Backcountry.

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I just found a very interesting blog that relates to personal privacy: The TechnoFascismBlog.

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Paul D. sent this: Police: 89-Year-Old Fires Gun At Intruder. Commenting on the police kindly reloading the revolver for the old woman, Paul notes: "This is great!!! Community policing at it's best."

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." - 1 John 1:9-10 (KJV)

I've had two readers write me to ask how to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull. One of them noted: "It took me a year just to learn how to pronounce TEOTWAWKI ("Tea-Ought-Walk-ee"), so now I'm expected to learn this?) Chris Taylor of Word Around the Net explains: "Its pronounced 'Throat warbler mangrove'". (An homage to Monty Python.) But as for me, I've decided just call the Icelandic volcano "Effie." I think that's a nice familiar nickname, and it is probably apropos, since we'll likely be choking on Effie's gritty bad cooking for several years, or perhaps even a decade or longer.

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Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Today there seems to be any number of reasons for the average American to turn the corner towards preparedness and being self-reliant.  Back in 1993, I would have been able to give you just as many reasons based on my observations through the 1980s.  Not surprisingly there are twice as many reasons for the average man to not start around that corner.  The reasons I have heard the most include the cost factor and objections to living so primitively.  Simply put: today's average American is too poor and soft to endure hardships like camping, physical labor, and no TV.  These were the same objections we had to overcome and did.

My wife and I woke up one day in 1993 and realized that our children (ages 2-10-10-12) were being raised by godless leftists in the government schools and on television.  We muddled through the rest of the school year and tossed out the television.  Instead, Renee quit her job to homeschool all of our boys. This was decided over several weeks and Renee had some doubts as to her ability, but in the end she made the commitment and I committed to supporting her as best I could. We chose to use the A Beka books for most of the curriculum. Having made this decision, it was about a year later that we realized the taxes we were paying went to very few services we used.   This started me down the path of finding a rural home with lower taxes and more opportunity to raise animals and a garden. We had envisioned a log home on a mountainside sloping to a meadow with a river running through. Right about then I lost my job.  It had been our plan to make these changes with the money I had from my income in the building industry but losing the job certainly put a damper on the plans.

Not wanting to continue with the old ways, we pushed forward. As it happened, I lost my job in the spring of 1993. That summer we sold almost everything we owned at the local flea market. Sometimes we were just exchanging things. A lawnmower for a grain mill, a bedroom set for a rifle, but for the most part we saved as much as we could. Selling the house didn't bring any real money to the table and what we did have was soon spent on a used school bus ($1,500) that was going to carry us all west to our promised land.  I rigged a tow bar behind our bus for our Jeep and one day in the fall with four boys, two dogs, and less than $3,000 we headed west.

I could write a chapter on our adventure/nightmare traveling but I’ll save that for another time. With less than $500 left, we ended up in northern Arizona in early January 1994. We had picked up a GP Medium tent with an arctic liner and set it up for the first time during a snow storm at a campsite in the national forest. Seeing a concrete picnic table at one site, it was my thought that we should place the tent over the table so we could have the comfort of the table inside. Seemed like a good idea to me. After directing the boys at holding the tent posts for about an hour we finally had the tent set up. My notion of enjoying the table was soon lost when Renee pointed out that the cold concrete table and benches just sucked the heat right out of us as we sat.  Live and learn.

We learned fast and within a few months, my boys and I could set up a GP Medium with liner and two woodstoves quicker than a company of soldiers. Staying in the national forest (with a 14-day maximum stay) saved us what little money we had left. It also helped that we had more privacy in the forest. It turned out that we always seemed to have a crowd gather around when we set up camp. The GP Medium tent is 16’ x 32’ in size and I guess seeing a man and four boys set it up was worth watching. After the work was done and the stoves were burning we’d often have someone knocking at the door post. Sometimes it was another survivalist living in the forest looking for a home cooked meal and sometimes it was just the curious having never seen a tent that big. 

One day while in the forest at a camp we had just set up. I told Renee that I was headed into the woods to do my business. I found a spot over a small hill and a stand of boulders from the site. It was private enough and there was a nice view of a small canyon just another 20 feet away. I was in the position with my paper and trowel in the ready, just enjoying the beauty of the canyon and forest. As I was there I got the strange feeling I was being watched. It really bothered me to the point I had to start scanning the surrounding area to see who was there.  As I looked across the canyon I saw a large timber wolf standing still and staring right at me.  I quickly jumped up and pulled up my jeans, turning just in time to see the wolf jump off the edge of the canyon and head towards me. Leaving my paper and trowel behind as I leapt over the stand of boulders, I saw the wolf crest my side of the canyon and knew it would be on me in an instant. Not turning back again I ran into our camp yelling, “Wolf! Wolf! Get my gun!”  Renee was at the tent door with my GP100 as I reached her. I grabbed the gun and turned expecting to see the wolf, but there was nothing. Once Renee and the boys stopped laughing at my adventure I vowed not to leave camp again without my sidearm.  Later, a ranger came by our camp to log our stay. I asked him about the wolf and was told he was a regular to that part of the forest and wouldn’t hurt anyone. Right.

Renee was the first to find work and I took up keeping the camp, cooking meals, schooling the boys, and seeking a place to start our home. 
It didn't take long to find affordable land in Arizona. The boys and I hiked for many miles on an old ranch land until we found a 50-acre place in the middle of an old 60,000 acre ranch. It was a bit larger than a ¼ mile square and had several good house sites. Further, it was "for sale by owner" and I was able to negotiate a "delayed settlement", "owner financing", and the "right to occupy".
This allowed us to set up camp on the property and save enough money to make the down payment in four months. Not having to deal with breaking camp every two weeks was a great feeling. The boys got extra freedom to wander and I could put in more permanent fixtures at our camp. We soon sold the bus and bought an old pickup truck along with a trailer for hauling water to our property.
Renee continued working while I kept up with the boys and started planning our house. Once we settled on the property, I started cutting the best looking junipers for the post foundation of our cabin.  I had found a solid outcrop of rock just below a cow path along one of the hillsides near the center of the land.  I dug down only a few inches to expose the rock that would support the cabin. Not having to dig any farther down than that, I placed the chainsaw cut juniper tree posts right down on the rock and started the house. Almost every weekend the boys and I spent searching for materials for the ranch cabin.
For the most part we used what we could off the land in timber and stone and paid cash for the rest. We were lucky to have found a saw mill close by. It was an old mill and the owner knew what he was doing. He sold us all the rough-cut ponderosa pine we could haul at a time.  

Once under roof we began our search for a woodstove. This was one of my biggest concerns. Renee had given me specific details on what was acceptable after many burned fingers and smoking pot holders. The stoves we had been using in the tent were the standard GI issue stoves. When they burned they burned hot, sometimes cherry red.  They were also not an airtight stove that would keep a fire all night unattended. And while they were relatively affordable, the stove we now needed was always expensive.  One day while in the big city 75 miles away from our ranch, I noticed a metal recycling scrap yard. High on a pile of iron was the stove I had been looking for! It was a Timberland Double Door with a large flat top surface suitable for cooking on! This was God looking out for Renee (or me). I was ready to drop a large sum of money on this right there. To my surprise, they only wanted the going rate of scrap iron per pound (less the weight of the fire bricks) for the perfect stove.  We later added a kitchen addition to the cabin with a standing pilot propane oven but the Timberland stayed on as the primary heat source for the home.

While building we used the water trailer as our water storage as well. Once the cabin was finished Renee hinted that she wanted running water in the kitchen sink. Being off grid with no well I had to come up with a workable solution.  We bought a 2,500 gallon water tank at a ranch supply store. Placing this tank on the hill where the bottom was above the height of the kitchen faucet I ran 2” pipe off the tank to the outside wall of the kitchen.  This gave us excellent water pressure to the faucet entirely gravity flow. Hot water for showers and dishes was heated by both the woodstove and the kitchen propane stove. Later, we added a propane instant water heater to the system.

Showers were accomplished in a shower house we built off the cabin. A wood decked walkway off the rear led to a small building with deck floors and a hook at the ceiling. At first we had a canvas military water bag with a large daisy shower head. The heated water was carried out and poured into the bag. We could take as long a shower as two gallons of hot water would allow. 

Being "off-grid" meant that, aside from the chainsaw, the boys and I were using only hand tools to build our home.  We could not afford solar power or generators until much later and for the most part we lived as early Americans did. We worked during the day, slept at night, used oil lamps when needed, heated with a woodstove, and had an outhouse for you know what. The only real luxuries we enjoyed those first years were a propane grill and our portable radio.  For nighttime entertainment as a family we listened to the AM radio shows. The boys enjoyed listening to KFI out of Los Angeles and their Radio Classics like The Shadow and The Jack Benny Show. During the day we hunted, killed rattlesnakes, and searched for arrowheads.

At one point Renee quit working and took up running the ranch while I worked locally where ever I could. Renee started a small garden that kept us in tomatoes and peppers to cook up with the average 18 eggs a day that our 24 chickens gave us. Her 30 goats supplied enough milk for everyone and all the cheese we could eat.

As the money came in we added on and upgraded and eventually got to solar panels and a generator. We even had one of the first satellite uplinks for Internet connection from our off-grid ranch.
It should be said that our sons are all men now. Two of them still live out west after going to local universities and the oldest is now out of the US Army, having gone to West Point. Our choices were not always the right choice but they were ours to own. I am proud of the job my wife did homeschooling our sons and while three of them do not actively live a survivalist’s life, they all know how to.

We are still survivalists. We sold our ranch and moved back east several years ago after staying out west for about 14 years. It became clear to us that water is everything for survival and the west has too many water issues. The ranch sold quickly to a California family looking to get out of their situation and into a better life. The lessons we learned have made us stronger and more ready to take on what's coming. The funds from the sale of our ranch bought us a 100-acre mountain farm sloping to a meadow with a river running through. Renee and our youngest son helped finish a modest cabin with solar power, and as soon as I can I'll be building that log home we had envisioned.

James,

I saw this on the net and thought that your readers may not have heard of this yet: Deadly Airborne Fungus Spreading in Northwest.

Heads up folks:

“A potentially deadly strain of fungus is spreading among animals and people in the northwestern United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia.”

“The spore-forming fungus can cause symptoms in people and animals two weeks or more after exposure. They include a cough that lasts for weeks, sharp chest pain, and shortness of breath, headache, fever, nighttime sweats and weight loss.”

“The new strain appears to be unusually deadly, with a mortality rate of about 25 percent among the 21 U.S. cases analyzed.”

According to the CDC, C. gattii has become endemic to the Pacific Northwest.

Regards, - Edward K.

Jim:
Unless I'm mistaken, 1:50,000 scale maps are military only. Civilian topo maps in the US (produced by the USGS) are 1:24,000 scale. If there are any 15 minute quadrangle maps still available they are 1:62,500 scale. Neither are compatible with military grid readers or scales.

Here is a source for map scales and protractors available in a variety of scales - print or copy them on transparent material and have at it.

Regards, - Flighter

The IRS Goes Clubbin'. This illustrates that taxing officials will show no restraint in their expanding quest for revenue, in the coming years. Flea markets, farmers' markets, gun shows, and any similar perceived dastardly bastions of free enterprise are doubtless next on their list. (A hat tip to RBS for the link.)

Also from RBS: Peak Phosphorus, and Why It Matters, by James Elser and Stuart White.

The Grudge Match Over Your 401(k)

Items from The Economatrix:

US to Shine Light on Derivatives Trading

Next Bubble: $600 Trillion?

IMF Trims Estimate of Losses From Financial Crisis

The Great Debate: Are Stocks Overpriced?

More Downside Risk Ahead for Oil and Gold

Home Sales Rise as Unemployment Claims Fall

GM Repays $8.4 Billion Bailout in Full. Oh but wait... GM Used Bailout to Repay TARP Loans, Senator Says

"Hobo Matt" sent us this: Time, Water Running Out for America's Biggest Aquifer

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By way of Tamara over at View From the Porch comes this link: Not Your Typical CCW Class. (JWR's comment: That makes sense to me!)

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Eric S. flagged this piece from The Albuquerque Journal that illustrates how folks can survive in an austere environment: On a Dusty Mesa, No Water or Electricity, but Boundless Space. But of course, without gasoline for vehicles to haul cistern water, they'd be in for some deep drama.

"Americans have always been able to handle austerity and even adversity. Prosperity is what is doing us in." - James Reston

Jim:
The 12 volt DC lead-acid batteries employed in most readers' vehicles, power storage systems and backup supply systems are expensive, have finite life spans and are a critical link in the timely operation of
equipment required to respond to short term and long term grid-down situations. Aged batteries become unreliable, but are difficult to keep in a state of readiness and when deemed "spent" their replacement puts a drain on already limited financial resources.

Most people have battery chargers and the know-how to use them in an effort to keep older - or infrequently used - batteries in a charged state so they can be relied upon when needed. This is, however, time
consuming and the unpredictability of battery depletion, through sulfation and other age-related deterioration, makes it difficult to keep your batteries in a constant state of readiness in a cost-effective manner that is not manpower intensive.

If a battery has reached a truly terminal stage of decay, such as failure of inter-cell connections, lead plate breakage or separations and similar situations that require mechanical reconstruction, then the battery should be recycled - it's beyond repair by ordinary mortals. But if the battery is mechanically viable and just badly aged, there is a very good chance that it can be brought back to a very useful state with a device that is relatively unknown but commercially available. I will not claim that it can be made as good as new, but my own results were very satisfying.

A neighbor of mine - a Ph.D. Chemist - came across, researched and subsequently purchased a device known as the Renaissance Charge Rejuvenator. He has already brought a dozen lead-acid 12V batteries back from near useless states. I borrowed the 'Rejuvenator' unit, and attached it to three different 12V lead-acid batteries of my own over a 4-day period. In each case the battery, which had previously been unable to retain a decent charge, was "brought back to life" and held a good charge making it usable for employment as a car battery, a source of energy in an inverter set-up or other traditional arrangements.

The Rejuvenator works best if you use it repeatedly, drawing down the battery between applications. For my own batteries, I used the unit until it indicated "done" (green light), then I placed a load on the battery and drew it down to about 11V, gave it a rest period of about 8 hours and then ran the unit through another cycle to charge it back up and apply a "second dose" of the unit's proprietary repair process.

The Rejuvenator is not exactly cheap at $200 (delivered) but if you bring two "mostly dead" large capacity car batteries (or just one heavy duty tractor battery) back to useful life you've pretty well paid for the unit and after that everything is free. You might consider splitting the cost with a good neighbor or two.

I submit that readers would be well advised to do some research and consider purchasing one of these units to extend the life of the many batteries they already have in use, in order to avoid the high costs associated with replacement. I was stunned when I counted and realized that I have fourteen 12V lead-acid batteries on my ranch. Just as an aside, I have no vested interest in the company that makes the units, and will receive no compensation if this recommendation should result in sales for the Renaissance-Charge Company, though it couldn't hurt if you mention that "Ted from Careywood" sent you. They may be inclined to give some sort of small discount, though I have no control over that. In any case, the cost/benefit analysis seems to make it a good deal, especially for those who use lots of battery banks to avoid dependence on the electrical grid. Best Regards, - Ted

Howdy,
I love the blog. I am preparing for regional disasters associated with living in Los Angeles and I thought your readers might like these two links.

The first one is Global Security.org where among other things, they have free e-copies of [nearly] all of the current Army Field Manuals.

The second one is a bit out of context but I think is quite informative given the nature of this community, it comes from DisasterSafety.org which as it happens is a building contractor web site that certifies builders to build and/or retrofit buildings to withstand natural disasters and such. They have a builders guide in PDF format has some interesting data on each state in the U.S. and what their flood zone is in nice color maps. Pretty nifty, I thought.

Happy reading. Best, - Sergeant Knuckles

Introductory Note From JWR: Lest this devolve into an endless "Ford Versus Chevy" type debate, after today's posts, I don't plan to post anything further on this particular thread.

Hi, Jim,
You've been getting lots of info about the "caliber wars" (again) and being the die-hard "don't care what caliber you got" aficionado I am, I thought you and your readers may find some interest in this article: The "Center Mass" Myth and Ending a Gunfight. Maybe it's the definitive report on the handgun "caliber wars and which does what to whom".

Thanks for a great site, Jim. I appreciate it. - Shy III


Jim,
Just a few points from a slightly different perspective on practical handguns for personal protection and carry. As an NRA trainer I've been training civilians for a little more than 20 years, and have some counterpoints to the fine article by Officer Tackleberry. As to caliber and bullet configuration the military is required to use ball ammunition for both rifle and handgun per the Geneva convention. Civilians carrying for self defense generally are not as limited, unless your state has such limits. Well placed shots from a hollow point in .35 caliber (.38 Special, .357 Magnum, .380 Auto, 9mm, etc.) are all excellent choices, but in my opinion are the lowest end of the firepower spectrum that I would select.

People with a law enforcement or recent military background have a perspective of a handgun more as a potentially offensive weapon, but the vast majority of the folks I encounter have no offensive training, and should approach the handgun as a defensive tool. There are some important steps you need to consider when carrying a handgun. The first is to never be in a situation where you have to use it if possible, by practicing and having good situational awareness, The second is to have it in good working order and for you to have practice with it until the operation is second nature. Dry practice drills with dummy ammunition (for proper weight) are a good way to learn proficiency with drawing, holstering, making magazine changes, and clearing. Finally, practice firing on the range as much as you can (or can afford). As a civilian using a defensive tool, you'll statistically never run into a situation where you'll actually need to reload the cylinder or magazine. We tell our students that if you're in that situation, you're in over your head, and that sometimes life just stinks. Remember that police not only have the larger magazines, but more importantly have a radio and backup.

A few more things to consider:

* If you are married and can only afford one firearm, select the one that may be used by the smaller of the two persons, usually the wife. That Desert Eagle may be macho, but if she can't move the slide it's pretty much rendered useless.
* For new shooters, revolvers are easy to use. If they malfunction (as in go click), you simply pull the trigger again, with no complicated clearing drills.
* In a stressful situation, especially when firing at a human being, your first shot will miss and go high 98% of the time
* Most encounters occur within 1 to 7 yards and are over in 15 seconds or less.
* Only use factory ammunition for the following two reasons. The misfire rate is statistically very low and reloading can put you into the very unenviable position of defending yourself in civil court as Dr. Frankenstein working late in the lab cooking up your lethal bullets

Some of these considerations aren't as important in TSHTF situations, but until then practice often, shoot straight, and be safe. - LVZ in Ohio

Sir:
I read with great interest Officer Tackleberry's recent post. He makes an excellent case for standardizing on the 9mm for his family. I find myself agreeing with many of his points but standardizing on .45ACP is still the right decision for my family.

I am a CCW instructor and I have made many of the same arguments Officer Tackleberry made to my own clients. Finding a pistol that fits your hand and your shooting style is far more important than focusing on caliber. The ammunition industry is doing a fantastic job of creating lethal bullets in all pistol calibers. I shoot better groups with a 9mm than I do with a .45ACP (I always qualified Expert with my M9 when I was in the Guard).

So why did I standardize my family on .45ACP?

- Compatibility: My Dad owns the retreat property. His primary semi-auto pistol is a 1911 Colt Commander that he has owned since 1973. With the exception of two, my semi-auto pistols are .45ACP 1911s and Glocks.

Proficiency: When I was courting my wife, I taught her to shoot my Glock 22 which is chambered in .40S&W. Not long after we were married I enrolled her in an NRA Personal Protection class where she had an opportunity to shoot other pistols. Much to my surprise she shot better with pistols chambered in .45ACP. I got her a Glock 21 for home defense and a Glock 36 for carrying.

Cost: It is true that 9mm ball is more economical than .45ACP ball. However .45ACP ball is more economical than 9mm hollow point. Frankly, I would rather spend the money on ammo that has a proven track record of knocking down fanatical enemy ranging from the Moros of the Philippine Insurrection all the way to the Taliban of Afghanistan. As for actually going to the range I really don't shoot as often as my friends think. I spend more time doing dry fire drills and I am still able to maintain my proficiency.

In closing I want to say that I totally respect Officer Tackleberry's position on adopting the 9mm. If it weren't for the fact that my Dad and my wife prefer the .45ACP, I would have standardized my family on .40S&W!

Keep your powder dry and keep em in the Black! - Cascinus

Jim,
Thank you for opening up this can of worms called 9mm versus .45 ACP. Both work well regardless of the bullet configuration. Do I prefer one over the other? Yes, but I won't say which one.

In all of my travels overseas I have been armed and it is almost universally with a 9mm. Most generally it is with a 9mm Glock.
What can I say about the Glock? Its the AK-47 of the pistol world. I've seen them (both the Glock 17 and the AK-47) go bang every time you pull the trigger in deplorable conditions. When you travel on national highways in Iraq or Afghanistan you get dust -- find talcum powder dust -- into everything. One contractor ditched his high-end full custom 1911A1 after just one run. A few hundred miles and he had repeated stoppages. In the end he used a Glock 17 and swapped his M4 for an AK-47. Both work in extreme conditions.

Can you get better performance with a .308 and a .45 ACP? Sure. If your gun goes off.

I've got Glocks in 9 mm, .40 SW, and .45 ACP and at home carry the .45ACP. But as soon as I go overseas on a project I carry the Glock 9mm as I know I can also get ammo for it just about anywhere (the nasty FMJ stuff the Egyptians load in lots of cases).

For competition shooting I use my Para-Ord P14 (double stack 1911 configuration) as it does have finer controls especially the trigger pull. But I can clean and lube it between strings if I have to. Not much like real field usage. - P.K.

James:
To help settle the argument, I suggest checking out the ParaOrdnance line of 1911s. Para-Ords have been around a long time and have proven reliability. Although I don't own one, I do know of their handguns. In short, some of their models deliver .45 ACP, high capacity (see various models), as flat as other 1911s and don't weigh much more (except for the extra .45 ACP ammo weight) than their competitors. This is a very old discussion and that's why Para delivered it first in the late 1980s. - Flhspete

Jim:
"Diz" stated in his recent letter that handgun skills are perishable and that it is necessary to practice with a lot of ammo on a regular basis, which causes the .45 ACP to be more cost prohibitive than the 9mm cartridge. I felt compelled to counter his argument and hopefully debunk a popular misconception from negatively affecting the wallets of your readership. Many people believe that to be a good shot, you need to shoot a lot. This is false. Practice does not "make perfect", practice makes permanent. Good practice makes you good, but if you practice garbage, you will be a garbage-master. Most of shooting, especially defensive handgun shooting, is based on muscle memory. Muscle memory is created from frequent repetition of an activity- in this case, rapid and smooth presentation from the holster, proper sight picture, sight alignment, trigger control, and a surprise trigger break with sights on your target. This should be followed with an after action drill, which includes scanning your environment for further threats and breaking the "tunnel vision" that follows a shooting incident. Your after action drill should also include seeking cover after the initial shooting and making sure that any dangerous threat to you no longer exists, whilst simultaneously checking your weapon, doing a tactical reload, and if applicable, checking yourself for bullet holes (most people don't immediately know they've been shot). Frequent shooting practice (even with the relatively lower recoil of the 9mm) will inevitably lead to the development of certain patterns that will negatively affect the shooter's accuracy and overall performance. No matter how professional you are, (or think you are) you will start to develop the involuntary tendency to either flinch (raise the weapon's muzzle slightly as it fires, in an attempt to escape the recoil), buck (push the weapon's muzzle slightly down as it fires, in an attempt to fight against the recoil) or jerk the trigger (pulling the trigger instead of pressing it, hoping to get the unpleasant recoil feeling over with).

The best way to combat these tendencies is to put the emphasis on your training on dry practice. It is free, takes 10-15 minutes a day to retain the "perishable skill," and contrary to a prevailing belief, it will not damage your weapon unless it is a rimfire.

Dry practice (not 'Dry-fire practice'), when done properly, will greatly increase your skill at no cost to you. It consists of setting up a target against a secure backstop (such as a wall in your basement or earthen berm in your backyard), unloading your weapon, your magazines, and yourself of any and all ammunition (there is no excuse for negligent discharges; the real safety is between your ears), eliminating all distractions in your immediate environment (turn off your television, cell phone, and lock that door), and verbally telling yourself that you are beginning your dry practice session. You should then go through the forms, presenting from the holster, sighting on your target, and smoothly pressing the trigger for a surprise break. Practice emergency reloads with empty magazines. Practice your after action drills. Important: Only practice malfunction clearance drills (with live ammunition) on the range, not in your house. This should be obvious, but is not to some people. Once you have finished your dry practice session (anything longer than 20 minutes or so will start to give you diminishing returns), you should take down and put away your dry practice target, verbally tell yourself that your dry practice session is over, and return your weapon to your preferred condition if you carry concealed.

Live-fire practice on the range should only be done to validate your dry practice. It should not be the bulk of your defensive weapon training, as it is both expensive and counter-productive to developing good skill. It should be minimal, ideally not consisting of more than 50 rounds at a time. With proper dry practice, you will see your shots hit their mark dead-on when you visit the range.

Keep in mind that a 50% rule applies to defensive shootings. It basically states that [under stress] you are only about half as good as your average day of training. When you are really consistent in your training, 50% of that is often sufficient to save your life.

You should use the most powerful cartridge you can comfortably handle, but remember that at the end of the day, an increase in energy is no substitute for proper shot placement.

Thanks for all you do, Jim. - Lost Boy, Front Sight Instructor


Mr. Rawles-
I just wanted to add one more perspective to those arguing about which pistol cartridge is best to carry. My view: Stop worrying about it. Pick a handgun and caliber that is comfortable for you to shoot and carry. Pick a handgun you can afford, for which there is a ready supply of ammo to stockpile. Instead of worrying about one stop shot statistics and anecdotal tales of handgun stopping power, put your time into practice and other preparations. Keep your long gun(s) properly maintained and practice with them as well.

It’s an argument analogous to the “skills beat stuff” view. The different defensive calibers are all tools that can get the job done when wielded correctly.

As always, love the site. Keep up the great work! - Rich S.

Brett came a link to this "must read" piece by Robert Wiedemer: A Coming Avalanche of Inflation

Also from Brett: Davidowitz: This Market Is a Sucker's Rally.

A video of some truth that they let slip into CNBC: Stay Clear of Western Markets and Currencies. Global investing analyst Martin Hennecke warns: "Sovereign debt crisis in the western countries is really getting underway..." and "The blow-up of sovereign debt is the final step of the financial crisis." Hennecke is also bullish on commodities and warns of a global financial meltdown with high interest rates and high inflation. (Our thanks to George Gordon for the links.)

Reader Sean O. sent this: New US $100 note aims to deter counterfeiters. Buried in the article is mention that there is now "$890 billion in physical U.S. currency in circulation."

RBS liked this piece posted over at Whiskey & Gunpowder: 401(k) as Dangerous as the Dollar

Items from The Economatrix:

US Commercial Property Values Decline 2.6%, Says Moodys

Stocks Advance on Higher Earnings, Energy Prices

Fraud, It's Much Bigger Than Goldman Sachs

14 Risks of Holding US Treasury Bonds

Recession Is Ending? Some Americans Don't Buy It

America's Economic Recovery is a Rotten Sham

Judy T. sent these links: Oil rig explodes off Louisiana coast and Transocean Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion shows new risks

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Thanks to L.J. in England for spotting this: Rabbit meat is enjoying a renaissance in the UK.

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Reader "MadMarkie" sent a note that might be of interest if you have an Outdoor World store nearby. Outdoor World currently has the Marlin Model 795 semi-auto .22 cal. rifle on sale for $99.94 after a mail-in rebate. Normal retail is $149.99, on sale for $124.94 and comes with a mail-in rebate coupon for $25.00. So your cost is $99.94.

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Eric M. sent this link, that illustrates how outnumbered the police will be, if and when things go sideways: Crowd attacks officer's car in Kalamazoo

"I say that the Second Amendment doesn't allow for exceptions – or else it would have read that the right 'to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, unless Congress chooses otherwise.' And because there are no exceptions, I disagree with my fellow panelists who say the existing gun laws should be enforced. Those laws are unconstitutional [and] wrong – because they put you at a disadvantage to armed criminals, to whom the laws are no inconvenience." – Harry Browne, at a meeting with the NRA's Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and other panelists at a gun rights rally in Hot Springs, Arkansas, August, 2000.

I noticed that there are now 530+ web sites that have links to SurvivalBlog. My goal is to have at least 1,000 "incoming" links. That would really help SurvivalBlog show up more prominently in search engines like Bing and Google. Couldya, wouldya, please? It just takes a couple of minutes to add a text or graphic link. I even have some nifty graphics and pre-fabbed HTML code available, to make it easy for you. Many thanks!

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Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Having the equipment and skill necessary to travel cross-country can prove to be very beneficial in a number of survival scenarios.  A key component to cross country travel is map reading and orienteering.  The equipment that you will need for this is a map, a lensatic compass, and a US Military Square 5x5 protractor.

The first item of equipment that we will cover is maps.  Different maps serve varied purposes.  A map used for navigating cross country will look very different from the maps that you are familiar with for use with travel on highways and paved roads.  For cross country travel a topographic map with marked grid square lines in a scale of 1:50,000 is the general accepted standard.  The 1:50,000 scale provides a good compromise between detail/accuracy and area covered.  If your plans include bugging out you should have 1:50,000 topographic maps that cover your entire route as well as a straight line distance between your start point and your destination.  Map coverage of your retreat area should include a 1:250,000 scale topographic map that can be mounted on a wall or table along with enough acetate paper and alcohol pens for operational overlays to include, but not limited to property boundaries with known occupancy rates of adjacent properties and buildings, fortifications, caches, and historical records of game animals taken by type/time/season/location.  Be sure to practice good OPSEC by taking down and storing your overlays when they are not in use.  You should also have 1:50,000 scale topographic maps covering the same area as your stationary 1:250,000 scale map.  A site that I am in no way affiliated with that will print a map for any area you desire is www.MyTopo.com.

The second piece of equipment that you need is a clear (not colored or frosted in any way) US Military Square 5x5 Protractor with a few aftermarket modifications.  Using a needle make a hole at the intersection of the crosshairs in the center of the protractor.  Now take a strand of 550 cord guts and route it through the hole that you made in the protractor and tie a knot in both ends so that the string stays in place.  Use the scale on your map to mark off 100 meter tick marks on the string starting at the center of the protractor with an extra fine tip black permanent marker.  The final modification is to carefully cut the excess material off of the interior of all of the grid scale triangles.

The last piece of equipment that is absolutely necessary when traveling cross-country is a quality lensatic compass.  You can find a brand new “Military Issue” lensatic compass with tritium illumination for between $70 and $100.  There are imitations that use phosphorescent material for illumination. Do not buy one of these compasses.  The phosphorescent material needs to be “recharged” using a flashlight when navigating at night and they are of poor quality compared to the compasses that are tritium illuminated. [JWR Adds: The genuine article has a Nuclear Material "tri-chop" symbol and NRC warning stamped into the bottom of the compass casing. Make sure those markings are there, before you buy, and make sure that all seven tritium vials built into the compass glow properly. Also, buy a compass that is less than 15 years old. (Tritium has an 11.2-year half life--so tritium vials lose half of their brightness every 11.2 years.) The model to look for will be marked: NSN 6605-01-196-6971. If you buy one that is marked with the contractor name "Cammenga", then it won't be older than 1992 production.]Once you have the proper equipment you need to learn how to use it.  This is best accomplished using the "crawl, walk, run" method.: 

Crawl:   The very first thing that you must always do is to turn your map until the north seeking arrow is pointing north.  Accomplish this by placing your map on a level surface and then open your compass and set it down next to the Magnetic North seeking arrow on the maps declination diagram.  Now simply rotate the map until the needle of your compass and the arrow on the map are pointing in the same direction.  This is called “map orientation”.  The best way to learn to read a map is to get a map of the type that you will be using, preferably 1:50,000 topographic, that covers an area that you are very familiar with.  It is even better if that area is where you are currently located as this will help you to match the graphic representations on the map with the real world places that they represent.  This will enable you to look at the landscape and your map at the same time and will give all of the lines and symbols on the map more meaning.  Unfold the map on a level surface, I rarely just hold a map in my hands and look at it while standing or walking.  While orienteering the time that it takes you to unfold that map and orientate it is a very helpful pause that allows you to get your bearings and make sure that you are on the right path.  I have been doing land navigation since I was 10 years old first as a Royal Ranger (a Christian faith based version of the Boy Scouts) and then in the military and during my time in the military I have never gone over time on a course or failed to find all of my points day or night, so don’t worry about the time this will take you, it is worth it.  Now begin by studying the map legend.  The legend will tell you what every color and symbol on the map represents.  Next, with the help of the information from the map legend, locate on the map any major intersects and/or landmarks that you are familiar with.  The entire purpose of the crawl phase is for you to match places that you know or can physically see with their graphic representations on your map.

Walk:  Now you will learn how to use your map and protractor to determine the distance and direction from one landmark or feature to another landmark or feature.  Center your protractor on any feature, building, or landmark on the map.  Now with the protractor centered over your first feature move the string along the degree scale at the outside edge of the protractor to determine the azimuth (direction) in degrees to your destination.  Write this number down, it is the “grid azimuth” and must be converted to a “magnetic azimuth” that you can use with your compass.  To convert a grid azimuth to a magnetic azimuth you must locate the Grid-Magnetic (G-M) angle found in the declination diagram of your map legend and do some simple math.  To find your magnetic azimuth if the Magnetic North line lays to the left of the Grid North line you add the G-M angle.  If the Magnetic North line lies to the right of the Grid North line you subtract the G-M angle to find your magnetic azimuth.  Before you move your protractor or map count the tick marks on the string between the two features to determine the distance and write the distance down. 

Run:  Plot a point on a map when given an 8 digit grid coordinate.  Determine the grid size you are working with by consulting your map.  An eight digit grid will look like this:  7840 0060.  From this grid coordinate 78 is the number of the horizontal line and 00 is the number of the vertical line.  You will find the intersection of Horizontal line 78 and vertical line 00 and place base of your grid scale triangle on that intersection with the vertical leg (right side) of the triangle aligned with the vertical 00 grid line.  Now slide your protractor to the right until the vertical 00 grid line intersects the 4 on the base of the triangle, ensuring you are keeping the base of the triangular cutout aligned with the horizontal grid line.  Now without moving your protractor, make a mark beside the 6 on the vertical leg of the grid scale triangle.  You have now plotted the point 7840 0060.  If the last number of either four digit set of numbers is not zero, say 0065 instead of 0060 then you would simply put your mark halfway between the 6 and the 7 on the vertical leg of the grid scale triangle.  An eight digit grid coordinate is accurate to within ten meters.  You can use this same method to determine the grid coordinate of any feature on the map.

Moving through the brush can be disconcerting for a lot of people, but that feeling will go away the more you get out and practice your land navigation.  Before you attempt any land navigation you must determine your pace count.  To do this measure off a 100 meter course through an area that is typical of the terrain that you will be navigating through.  Now walk the course leading with your left foot and keep count of every time your right foot strikes the ground.  Do the same thing walking the course in the opposite direction and the average of the two times is your pace count.  Remember that when walking uphill your pace count will be higher than if you are walking down hill.   Most people if told to walk in a straight line with no reference points will eventually end up walking in a very large circle.  To mitigate this move from object to object along your path by shooting an azimuth to each object and then moving to that object. Repeating this process while you navigate should keep you from walking in circles.

 To use your compass to “shoot” an azimuth there are two methods, compass to cheek and center hold.   The compass to cheek method is preferred when moving during daylight hours.  To use the compass to cheek method open the cover of the compass until it forms a 90 degree angle to the base.  Make a pistol with your hand like a child would do with your index finger and thumb extended and the rest of your fingers curled.  Place your thumb thought the thumb loop and your index finger along the side of the compass base.  Steady the hand holding the compass with your other hand.  Position the thumb that is through the thumb loop against your cheekbone.  Look through the lens of the eyepiece and move the eyepiece up and down until the dial of the compass is in focus.  Rotate your entire body until the proper azimuth is achieved.  Now align the sighting slot of the eyepiece with the sighting wire in the cover and find an object that is intersected by the sighting wire.  Now you will move to that object keeping your pace count and once you have reached it shoot the same azimuth and find another object and walk to it.  You will repeat this until you have reached your destination.  For night the center hold method is preferred. 

Open the compass so that the cover forms a straight edge with the base and move the lens of the compass out of the way.  Make a pistol with your hand like a child would do with your index finger and thumb extended and the rest of your fingers curled.  Place your thumb thought the thumb loop and your index finger along the side of the compass base.  Take your other hand and place your thumb between the eyepiece and the lens and extend your index finger along the remaining side of the compass.   Now with your arms at your sides with elbows bent at a 90 degree angle turn your body until the correct azimuth is attained and walk making sure to maintain that azimuth by checking you compass every few steps.  When using this method and stepping around small obstacles go first to the left or right of one obstacle and the around the next obstacle on the opposite side.   If you have gone the appropriate distance and direction and do not see your destination take the following steps.  First, lay your map on the ground and redo all of your plotting and calculations from the very beginning.  If you verify those calculations as correct then mark the spot where you are and walk 100 meters in the same direction that you were previously traveling keeping an eye out for you end point.  Once you have walked 100 meters turn around and go back to the point that you marked.  Now add 90 degrees to your direct of travel and go for 100 meters returning to the point previously marked on the ground.  Repeat this process, adding 90 degrees each time, until you are back at your original azimuth.  I tend to drift to the left when navigating so will typically find my point when I add 90 degrees and walk for 100 meters.

Nothing will ever replace repetition when it comes to developing and maintaining your map reading and land navigation skills.  Start off with short distances of 100 to 200 meters and work up from there.  In closing always remember:

1. Take the time to lay your map out flat and study it
2. Always orient your map
3. Write down your azimuth and distance
4. Map Reading and Land Navigation are perishable skills
5. Carry a GPS for backup (while the satellites are still working)
6. Re-certify your pace count often

Dear Mr. Rawles,

I have been reading your blog for about a year (sincere thanks for a great job) and have introduced a few dozen folks to its collected wisdom. I pass along this article, from The Telegraph in the United Kingdom, that speaks to the mounting impact/consequences of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano.

For a long time I have had concerns about the practice that manufacturing businesses have adopted for managing their supplies and inventory - namely the employment of Lean Supply Chain (LSC) manufacturing techniques. While companies (nations) reduce expense for maintaining inventory, in the short run, by utilizing LSC and "just in time inventory" techniques, they leave themselves very vulnerable to long wave, black swan, etc. events - such as a war, volcanism, earthquake, civil unrest, or other natural, or man made disasters. Given the total lack of responsiveness (by our "leaders" to our current man made economic disaster I have little hope that these same "leaders" would learn lessons from this ongoing natural disaster. While cost savings and efficient manufacturing operations are greatly enhanced, utilizing LSC techniques, it might be prudent to rethink / realign critical supplies, maintaining sufficient inventory for critical items that should be kept locally in quantity.

In addition, the current plight of the ten's of thousands of people stranded around the world as result of the shutdown of the European portion of the air transport network should make one realize that maintaining multiple, expansive transportation modalities, (i.e. the deplorable state of American Railways comes to mind, and the U.S. Merchant Marine, which died of neglect 40 years ago) would be a good thing. Sadly there are very few passenger ships operating today under any flag - those that do exist are prohibitively expensive - the affluent need only apply (afford) bookings if they were available, which they are not for at least three to six months out. In closing, the ongoing Eyjafjallajokull event should serve as further validation for SurvivalBlog readers to prepare - the consequences of the engineered lack of redundancy (to "save" money utilizing LSC) will be in the news for some time after this particular event ends.

We live in a very fragile world and it grows more brittle by the month. Best Regards, - Nemesis in Northern Virginia

Mr. Rawles,
I noted with interest (and joined) a new web site for singles "SurvivalistSingles.com". As a Christian, prepper, mom and grandmother, I find most date sites decidedly unappealing. Perhaps this new site would be of interest to some of your single readers, even if only to network and gain new friends. It is new, and for now, free. You'll find that SurvivalBlog is mentioned in the questionnaire, as well!
Thanks for all you and your readers do to share, enlighten, and teach. - Ruger9mmgal, a Michigan SurvivalBlog reader

P.S.: I am not in any way affiliated with the site or it's owners.

JWR Replies: Thanks for alerting us to that new site. I hope that it prospers. I've just added a link to it, in my Finding Like-Minded People in Your Area static page.

Economics and Investing:

P.D. liked this article: Next financial Crisis is about to emerge.

Reader RBS notes that coinage debasement continues globally, this time with our neighbor to the North: Canada Ready to Change Coins, Notes. What is next after steel coins? Plastic?

L.J. in England sent this: Unemployment hits 16-year high at 2.5m in new blow for Brown. The article begins: "Gordon Brown's strategy of putting the economy at the heart of his election battle was dealt a fresh blow today as new figures showed unemployment has hit a 16-year high. The jobless total now stands at 2.5 million, while the number of people classed as economically inactive has reached record levels."

“Looks Like Magic” – Ron Paul on the Fed’s Money Machine (Our thanks to Chester for the link.)

Items from The Economatrix:

Get Ready, Inflation is On the Way

Goldman and Volcano Take Down Oil Prices

Airline Losses from Ash Spiral Over $1 Billion

Leading Indicators Jump 1.4%, Topping Estimates

Goldman Sachs Prosecution Threatens All of Wall Street

Must Germany Bail Out Portugal Too?

The Explosive Duo of the Second Half of 2010

California Underemployment Rate at 24%

Odds 'n Sods:

My #1 Son mentioned that he has recently added several new retreat properties at SurvivalRealty.com, our spin-off web site.

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As the nascent Depression unfolds, widespread economic dislocation and bad government policies will likely result in more scenes like this, not just in "The Stans", but around the globe: Shocking Footage of the Violent Clashes in Kyrgyzstan. (A hat tip to Matt B. for the link.)

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Tamara over at the View From the Porch blog provided a link to a detailed article on improving Glock trigger pulls with out compromising safety.

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The mainstream media now reports: Threat of new, larger Icelandic eruption looms. (But of course you read about this threat first in SurvivalBlog, back on April 18th.)

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do [it] with thy might; for [there is] no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." - Ecclesiastes 9:10 (KJV)

Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Survival planning can be overwhelming and a lot of the advice you get is not practical or compatible with our lifestyles. A lot of us choose, or are forced to live in the crowded East Coast far too close to cities to survive TEOTWAWKI. I dare say, a lot of SurvivalBlog readers live in suburbs just outside medium to large population centers. Many of us have jobs that don't migrate to small towns and would face a substantial loss of income if we moved away from our livelihoods. Some of us like our current lives and feel that hunkering down in a rural town is just too much like running away from life. Others (like myself) have family obligations that preclude relocating.

That can make surviving the "big one" difficult or even impossible. But, fortunately, the "big one" is much more unlikely than a lot of smaller regional disasters. You should be able to easily survive the small ones and with a little planning you may be able to increase your odds of surviving TEOTWAWKI astronomically. If you approach preparation logically, you should probably have a variety of plans in place to mitigate a whole range of possible disasters. While this suburban approach is not as safe as living in a back-woods retreat out west, it's much less extreme and more palatable for suburbanites. If you can pull it off, living debt free and off the grid in your remote retreat is the safest option. If you can't, don't give up. Prepare for what you can and mitigate the rest. At least think it through and have a plan of action.

First, what are your real goals? Survival is simply keeping body and soul together and your body temperature at 98.6 degrees. That's definitely not enough for most of us. We all want to survive in style, with as little discomfort as possible. There is a huge difference between living in a stadium with thousands of other refugees and living in your own home. Most of us want to be in a position to help others in a crisis, or at least exercise some level of control over our lives and maintain some dignity. But, don't lose sight of the real objective. You want to keep breathing, even if you lose your home and your possessions. The scale and duration of a disaster determines the amount of preparation you must have, but in every case, living in style with dignity and comfort takes more preparation than simply living through it. If you are living in a high population area, you are accepting risk and betting that society will continue in some form. That's okay as long as you realize that you are going to have to pay for that bet if the big balloon ever goes up.

Lets look at some disasters in ascending order of severity and see what you can do to live through them from your suburb home. I will share my own preparations under each heading, not because I am a super-survivor and ready for anything, but so you can see what I consider a practical level of effort (in my particular case). You can easily improve on my preparation level and should if you feel the need. I am 50 years old and basically a lazy guy with grown up kids. If I die from my own lack of preparation, I can accept that and I guarantee the world will go on without me. You have to choose your own pain level when it comes to survival planning.

1. Power outage (temporary, like would be caused by a severe winter storm). This is an easy disaster to survive. Basically everyone will survive it unless they are unfortunate enough to be on an operating table or something at the time. Surviving with style requires a generator or at least candles and maybe a camping stove. In very cold environments, you can be in danger without an alternate form of heating for at least one room. Setting up a dome tent inside your home and using good quality sleeping bags can allow you to survive sub-zero temperatures easily. Even a couple of candle lanterns can keep the inside of a small tent above freezing. Several LED lights will make your life much better and a good battery radio is a must. Rechargeable batteries are a good idea but only if you keep them charged. If you can't make that much effort, take the lazy way out and keep a large supply of Duracell batteries on hand and rotate them yearly--problem solved. Keep in mind that elevators and subways become immobile metal boxes in a power outage.

My own preparations: I have a deep cycle battery backup to provide light and recharge AA batteries for a few days. My system is on a smart-charger to maintain the charge and I rotate one of my two big marine batteries every three years for a cost of about $90. This is much less trouble than maintaining a small generator, but probably a little more expensive in the long run. I also have a 12 watt (12 volt) solar panel to top off my battery bank and a 6 watt solar AA battery charger. If worst comes to worst, I can recharge my batteries from my truck alternator. Total system cost (with a 1,500 watt inverter, charger and a hand truck) was slightly more than a generator. I don't use a freezer for food storage, so I don't require much electricity. I have kerosene lanterns and both propane and wood cooking capability. I am prepared for much worse, so, of course I have lots of food, some water, a hand operated well, several good radios, camping gear and other stuff. So a power outage is not even very inconvenient. The only thing I really miss without grid power is air conditioning and television.

2. Regional disaster (Earthquake or Hurricane). Some disasters are too nasty to face. You will want to evacuate. This requires a vehicle with plenty of fuel, a wad of cash, and a well stocked bug-out bag for each member of the family. More importantly, it requires a plan. What will your bug-out route look like in a disaster? If you haven't considered this, you probably should. Take a look at the congestion in every recent hurricane evacuation and plan accordingly. You need to know where you will go and plan your route. If you can own a well stocked retreat outside the disaster area and can get to it, you have it made. If not, make plans to stay with friends or family outside the disaster zone.

My own preparations: My area is sort of vulnerable to hurricanes and flooding, so I have a very extensive bug-out bag with basic camping stuff, two weeks of food and water, and a few basic weapons for the road. I have all my important documents in a waterproof/fireproof lock-box that I can grab and take with me. I keep my truck in good shape and consistently top off my fuel when it reaches 1/2 tank, but I only store seven gallons of gasoline (which I rotate every month or two). I also have cash on hand so I can pay for hotel rooms. I am 1/4 tank away from high ground, so I figure that's good enough. Oh, and I also carry flood insurance.

3. General economic depression/recession/hyper-inflation etc. Once we start an economic slide, it can hit you in a lot of ways. Some of us have already been crushed by the current depression. Your pension may be lost. Prices will skyrocket, while your paycheck doesn't. Losing your job or having drastically less money can be a soul-destroying disaster. There are several ways you can mitigate it if you start early enough. Debt is your biggest problem and threat. If you miss a few house payments, or car payments, the banks are not going to be forgiving. Credit card debt can crush you with interest and finance charges. Avoid them like the plague. While you still have a reliable income, you need to pay off debt, or at least build up a buffer of cash to allow you to make minimum payments while you look for a job. Many of us have fallen into the trap of having a huge 30 year mortgage and live in fine suburban houses. As the real estate market falls flat, you won't be able to sell your home to get out of debt. Buying a smaller, less expensive place or renting can give you a measure of freedom if you can manage to get free from your current mortgage. If you have a mortgage payment, you are still a renter and subject to eviction. Even if you own your house outright, you really don't. You probably still have to make a tax payment or you will be evicted.

Oddly enough, a food storage program can really help you make ends meet. The kinds of food we store tend to be not only shelf-stable, but cheap. If you start eating the same foods you store, like wheat, beans and rice for most of your meals, you can feed your family on pennies. These basic foods are actually tasty and nutritious once you get used to them. Work them into your diet gradually and you may find that you feel healthier and spend less on your grocery bills.

A small garden can cut your food costs and raise the quality of your diet at the same time. (You also get an opportunity to get a little exercise, something most of us need.) Fast food is not only unhealthy, it's expensive. The same $20 you would spend to feed your family a meal of greasy burgers will stretch to five or more healthy meals if you cook it yourself. A good cookbook can be a wonderful investment if you use it.

Get rid of all your car payments. Driving an older car that you own outright can save you a ton of money. They are cheaper to insure too.

My own preparations: Not so good. I have a fairly safe job, but almost no savings and quite a lot of debt, mostly in the form of a large mortgage. If I lost my job, I would quickly lose my home if I couldn't find another one quickly. I have a small military retirement pension, but we would have to make some drastic lifestyle changes to live on it. The thought that I could be homeless and broke within 5-6 months scares me, but there is no quick fix for debt.

As long as I have a job, I will at least have local transportation. I often ride to work or shopping on my mo-ped which gets 150 mpg. I can get around town pretty well with no other form of transportation. I store 7 gallons of gasoline and oil and have a complete set of spares. This would allow me to run my Moped for at least months, even if I were unable to get more. If gas gets much higher, I will probably park my old truck most of the time anyway. My little bike is home built from a kit. It has a 66cc engine I bought on Amazon and put together in a weekend. At first, this bike was just a toy, but I quickly saw the utility and bought a complete set of spares and bike parts to "systemize" it. It has proven reliable, economical and loads of fun. Coupled with a small cargo trailer, my bike can haul about 200 pounds of groceries at 25mph and has a range of over 75 miles without refueling the little 2.5 liter tank. Total cost counting the bike, engine kit, spares, fuel storage containers and tools was about $450. If you are interested in building one of these kits, I highly recommend a visit to MotorBicycling.com. With a little research, you can tell if you are skilled enough to build one and maintain it. This solution won't work for everyone, but it works great for me. It's a wonderful feeling of power to know I can repair anything that goes wrong with it.

4. Crime. The Marines have a saying I admire: "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet." These are words to live by. Being robbed, raped or burglarized is a personal disaster, but violent crime can be the most horrible thing that ever happens to you. Anyone can be a target of violent crime, so never assume you are safe, even in your own home. Your physical security should be your first concern and always at the back of your mind. There is no time to think about it while it's happening, so you will need to plan out your responses in advance. Do you have to go through life watching over your shoulder for danger? In short, yes. You do anyway. When you cross a busy street, you don't just amble across without a glance. Why should you behave that way when it comes to thugs?

Do you have a weapon? If not, you really do need to get one ASAP and learn to use it. Do you rely on the police to protect you? If you do, you are betting your life against long odds. Historically, the police have a dismal record for protecting citizens. If you don't believe me, ask a cop. Most of them will tell you that they can't protect you from violent crime and will advise you to arm yourself. Firearms are by far the best weapons, but if you simply can't own one (for whatever reason), have something and a plan to use it effectively. Even residents of New York City can own a ball bat, knife or tomahawk, so there is no excuse for being unarmed. Don't bet your life on a Taser or pepper spray. Buy something lethal and learn to use it. Just your possession of a weapon, skills and a plan to use them will calm you and allow you to think more clearly.

Defending your home. If someone wants into a house, then they can get in. No physical barrier can stop a determined person. But, barriers like solid doors and locks can slow them down and force them to make noise. The only real deterrent that works is the threat of brute force (even if you rely on the police to provide it for you). Visible barriers can also deter criminals and make them go elsewhere. But what if they ring the doorbell in the middle of the day? Do you answer your door with a pistol in your hand? Maybe you should. Or at least, stuff a snub-nose revolver in your pocket on your way to the door. Home invasions often begin with a knock on the door and a friendly smile. You may not be able to stop the Manson gang with a pocket pistol, but then again, you might. Your chances are certainly better if you expect that friendly UPS guy holding a package to suddenly turn nasty and push past you into your house with his four buddies. Look at your situation right now. Are you more than five seconds away from a loaded weapon? If so, you are not as secure as you might be.

Defending against burglary while you are away is harder. Barriers like stout doors and window bars help. Living in a good neighborhood and knowing your neighbors helps. Having a monitored burglar alarm helps if you can afford it. A loud (unmonitored) burglar alarm will make the burglar jumpy and might scare him away. You should also make it hard on him. Don't store your valuables in easy to find or easy to grab fashion. A heavy gun safe is a lot harder to carry off than loose valuables. If it's bolted down, it's even more difficult to steal. Scatter and hide your wealth and the burglar is likely to miss some of it. If the worst happens and your stuff is stolen, console yourself. It's just stuff.

A dog can be a big deterrent and a wonderful warning system (and a peerless pal!). But never depend on a dog to fight for you. Dogs are too easy to beat. Dog owners tend to overestimate the combat effectiveness of their animals. The fact is, even a large dog is not hard to kill and all of them are downright stupid compared to a human adversary. Don't count on your dog to defend your home. He will try valiantly and fail. Dogs are best used to warn you and give you time to prepare a defense. (By the way, domesticated dogs are the only canines that bark. There is some evidence that they were originally bred specifically as burglar alarms.)

If you bug out, then you should absolutely be armed. There are too many things that can go wrong on the road. You need weapons you can conceal or they may be confiscated at a check point, so I suggest a battle carbine with a folding stock. (The WASR 10 AKM, that comes with a TAPCO trigger job is a great choice). A good choice for concealed carry is a Ruger SP-101 in .357 Magnum. It's utterly reliable, powerful and as accurate as you are. My G.O.O.D. preparations include a Mossberg riot shotgun to surrender to the cops and a few other items that are less noticeable. The Mossberg is an excellent weapon and cheap enough to not weep if you lose it.

My own preparations: Not great, but better than most. I have a battery powered burglar alarm inside the house to give me some warning and 3 battery powered wireless cameras for outdoor monitoring. We have three cell phones on two different networks, so we can call the police.

I have a modest, but adequate survival battery and a moderate amount of ammunition for each weapon. I answer the door with my hand on a .44 Magnum. I am rarely more than two seconds from a loaded firearm and carry a knife even in the shower. Does this make me a paranoid? Maybe, but I figure that just because you are not paranoid doesn't mean everyone is is not out to get you. This level of readiness for sudden combat might prove too inconvenient for some people but doesn't cramp my lifestyle at all. I have lived this way my whole adult life. I am not hurting anyone and I feel pretty safe. None of my neighbors know about any of my preparations or suspect that they are covered when they come knocking at my door. My home doesn't look like a bunker and I never look like I am armed. My wife is a marginal but enthusiastic shot, and has a .45 Colt single action revolver within reach most of the time. (She has three of them and jokingly calls two of them her "speed loaders" [since Colt single action revolvers are notoriously slow to reload.] It might be a bad day for someone attempting a home invasion at my place. The bad guys will at least have to overcome an instant, determined defense. But even with all my "rational paranoia", my house is far from secure. It can be burglarized easily or burned. It's definitely not a fortress. If law and order completely breaks down, I recognize that I can't possibly defend this house from a determined group. There is no shame in running away from extreme danger.

5. Financial collapse: If there is a general collapse of the finance systems, expect banks to close immediately for the duration, or perhaps impose withdrawal limits on your accounts (check the fine print. They can do that.) If you have valuables stored in a strong box inside a bank, you may not be able to access them. ATM machines may quit working. Credit will dry up and your VISA card may not work. As hyperinflation takes hold, the price of goods will fluctuate wildly and vendors will start defensively pricing their goods. In most historic cases of hyperinflation, prices changed daily or even hourly. If all of this comes to pass, any wealth or entitlements you have denominated in dollars (like a retirement check, for instance) will quickly become waste paper. In this kind of environment, most people are going to we wary of doing business and shortages of fuel, food and other staples should be expected. Cash is king in a credit-less economy, but it's also poisonous. It loses value quickly, so you will want to hold as much of your wealth as possible in tangible goods and dump cash quickly. In hyper inflating economies, people who get paid in dollars try to cash their checks and spend the money on payday. If this kind of emergency gets really bad or lasts very long, I believe it could easily slide into a total grid-down TEOTWAWKI collapse. Our only hope is that the same government who caused the crisis can somehow maintain order and halt the crash. I don't have a clue how they will be able to do this and I suspect they don't either. The point is, they will be on a time limit. At some point, people will start to riot, loot, and evacuate cities and the whole house of cards may fall.

The Ideal way to survive this kind of calamity is to already be living outside the money economy. If you don't have any bills or expenses and are largely self sufficient, you can probably survive this without much change in lifestyle. Everyone else may be in trouble. In the event of a general finance meltdown, you really should consider executing your TEOTWAWKI plan, because things may get very ugly very quickly and you may not be far ahead of the Golden Horde. Widespread and simultaneous bank closures from financial instability is a very bad sign.

6. TEOTWAWKI plan. (Long term Grid-down emergency): This is the big one. It's what this blog is all about, and the reason you should have moved out west to a quiet little town. If you can plan for this one, you will be ready for anything less catastrophic. I see a collapse happening in three broad phases: The struggle to save society, the big die-off, and the early struggle for recovery. Let me explain what I mean. Our modern world is very inter-dependent and a breakdown of any major system can cause the collapse of the others like a house of cards. The main ones that can't stand much interruption are:

Food distribution
Fuel distribution
Finance systems (commerce)
Electrical Power Grid
Government law enforcement

Failure of any of these for an extended period could cause catastrophic failure of the other four systems. If people are starving, they will break laws to get food. If nobody can buy or sell, it can completely stop food and fuel distribution. Fuel distribution effects the power grid. Unless the Government quickly reacts to disruption of any of these main systems and props it up well enough, the others are sure to crash. There will be a period where the government (and most responsible citizens) attempt to prop up the system and put it back in order. Reporting for work even if you are afraid of violence and not being paid may be the only way the system can be repaired and the crash averted. If these efforts fail and one or more of the above support systems stay down long enough, all five of these systems will likely fail in rapid succession.

Failure of these will cause other second order failures in systems that, while critical, can stand some disruption without catastrophic results, such as food production, medical services, transportation and distribution of other goods, other government services, coal mining, Water and sewage and maintenance as well as many others. The net result of a general breakdown of services would be to shatter society beyond a return to normalcy.

Here is the problem you face: Almost everyone in western civilization is supported by this precarious web of services. Without them, these people cannot possibly maintain their current existence for more than a few days or weeks at the most. There is not enough food stored nearby where people live, also, these people don't yet own it. (check around. Almost nobody stores a meaningful amount of food in the USA or Europe). Without the electrical grid, finance, law enforcement, transportation and security, everything comes to pieces and people will start to starve.

The population of the USA (and Europe) will be hungry and desperate within a very short time. How short? I really don't have any empirical data on this. Regional disasters are not a good model for a general breakdown because there is always help available immediately from the outside, even if it's nothing more than a stable finance system and the threat of eventual prosecution for looters. The one thing we can be sure of is that without modern systems, most people are going to die in a matter of months.

Lest you think this kind of catastrophe can't happen, be warned: This massive population die-off is not without precedent. Throughout pre-history, there are repeated catastrophic die-offs where a population suddenly collapsed. The Mayans, Anasazi, Greenland Vikings, Easter Island, and several African empires probably experienced a very similar event. Each population (except Greenland) stabilized at a new, far lower, population level. But, each of these cases was the result of the collapse of societies much less complex and populous than our own, with fewer dependencies and much shorter production chains. In other words, their societies were much more robust and resilient than ours. Our collapse and die-off will be unprecedented only in scale and the speed of the crash.

Living near a population center makes surviving the die-off difficult or even impossible. People don't just sit down and starve to death. They form groups and go out looking for provisions. Put yourself in their shoes and think it through and you will see that every house, every building they can reach will be systematically searched for food. Even remote retreats may not be safe from this. People tend to organize and come up with solutions, even to tough problems. [JWR Adds: And be forewarned that they tend to apply "situational ethics."] Every city and every town will have provisioning teams out looking for supplies. Anyone who expects to stand on their rights and claim that they "own" their supplies is going to lose in the face of general starvation. Any provisions you have that can be found will be confiscated by somebody unless you can fight them off.

I would like to save you some planning time here and say that you can't fight them off. They will use whatever force they require to kill you if you try. you will be facing a modern military force determined to take you down. You simply cannot win. Expect to be approached by a uniformed policeman (or citizens wearing armbands or whatever) armed with a writ or martial law decree allowing them to search your home and confiscate food and fuel. Unless you have hidden or evacuated your goods, you will lose them, one way or the other.

You will need to make some hard choices if you plan to survive a die-off and live near a population center! If you truly believe, as I do, that you can't possibly bug out in place, you will either have to evacuate to a safer place, or hide. A long G.O.O.D. trip (IMHO) is likely to fail. There are just too many variables that are outside your control. You must have a clear route, good weather, working vehicle, provisions for the trip and ample fuel. You must also maintain security during the trip. It's not just ambush or raiders you have to worry about. Any local sheriff, anywhere on your route can block a road and confiscate your vehicle, almost on a whim. Any number of problems can come up on the road.

My own preparations: Since I have chosen to accept risk and live in the East near a population center, I will have to take extreme measures to live through an extreme disaster. My preparations are fairly extensive, but not as expensive or time consuming as buying even a meager retreat home. As with all my other preparations, I set a goal for myself that minimizes my effort and expense and still gives me a good chance to survive.

First, I have no confidence that I could evacuate to a safe place or outrun the "Golden Horde", so to live through a general population die-off, I will have to hide my family and all our provisions. This is not a fool-proof solution. It requires some preparation and it certainly isn't easy to do, but I believe this is my only real chance of surviving the die-off long enough to help rebuild.

I have chosen a remote wooded area (Federally owned pine woods) near my home with lots of ground cover and almost no game or other resources. There is a tiny stream nearby, too small for fishing, but with a year-round supply of relatively clean fresh water. I have chosen a good place for a hide site (a camouflaged encampment with a sturdy fighting position) and cached quite a lot of provisions nearby including a big box of sandbags.

With these basics and my (truck load) BOB, I can set up a LRS style hide site. This is sort of an enhanced objective rally point (ORP) with much better security than my home. I feel that my family can be preserved there for about a year, even in the event of a massive society collapse and die-off.

This plan seems extreme, (it is), but weigh it against the alternatives. The advantages of a wilderness hide-site retreat (for me, anyway) are compelling. My site is very close to my current home, so I don't have to worry about keeping a lot of fuel on hand or facing a long, dangerous G.O.O.D. evacuation. It is highly unlikely to be found by looters, hunters, loggers, or anyone else and isn't on somebody's private land...in fact, I don't hold a deed to it, so it can't even be traced to me and located by city hall records. It's much safer and more defensible than my home and can be evacuated with little loss of provisions since the bulk of them are hidden at some distance from the site. My pre-positioned provisions are carefully waterproofed and don't require much maintenance. (I spot check some of my caches yearly, but none of them have ever required any attention). Any retreat with buildings is much harder to hide or maintain and obviously costs much more.

Building a permanent cache is an art form, so if you choose to use this tactic, think it out and research it before you do it. A good technique is to bury a large galvanized steel culvert and seal the space inside with welded (or even bolted) steel doors or bolted panels to keep out rodents. Cover the ground a few feet around with heavy (6 mil or better) plastic sheet and cover the whole thing with a foot of soil and sod or leaf litter. In a few weeks, it will be undetectable without a metal detector. An 8 foot section of 3 foot culvert provides over 40 cubic feet of usable secure storage space and can be man-handled into place by two strong men using only a pickup truck and hand tools. You still have to waterproof every container inside the culvert, but they are surprisingly dry and temperature stable inside as long as you are well above the water table. I recommend you provide some redundancy. Hide several of these and store more food than you think you will need, in case one or more of them are found and looted somehow. This requires a lot of heavy digging unless you can rent some machinery without attracting attention. But, even if you have to do it with a shovel, it might be worth it someday. And once you have your culverts in place, you can relax and go fishing. You don't have to worry about provisioning too much since the bulk of yours will be safe.

Living in suburbia in the Eastern US, you are constantly living in the shadow of a major population center, or several. This can be good and bad. Your chances of making it through most disasters are actually better than if you were living in the remote boonies since you will enjoy the benefits of the money economy, easy to find jobs and a nearby police force. Just be aware that if the worst happens, you will need some pretty extreme plans to maximize your odds of living through it.

Mr. Rawles,

I have a few counterpoints to Officer Tackleberry's article touting the 9mm and especially the Glock 9mm family of pistols. My daily concealed carry pistol is a Kel-Tec PF9 9mm, so I don't have any objections to 9mm as a caliber. But I also have a SIG P220 in .45 ACP, and favor it over any high-capacity 9mm full-size pistol. While the author's anecdotal evidence shows any pistol can be lethal, a .45 ACP, with the right ammunition, is going to be more effective than a 9mm. With an 8 round magazine and one in the chamber, that's three attackers whom I can give a double tap to the torso and one to the head. Yes, a Springfield XD would give me 20 rounds --- but would those less-capable 9mm rounds do the job?

On another note, my wife prefers a steel-framed 1911 over any polymer-framed 9mm --- the difference is weight, especially near the muzzle. The 1911 in .45 ACP is much more pleasant to shoot than a Glock 9mm, especially with +P ammo. The platform is just as important as the caliber in determining recoil / shootability. I understand the design features of the Glock make them easy to use -- no argument there. - Jeremiah S.

JWR:
In his excellent article, Officer Tackleberry has outlined his case for the 9mm cartridge and the Glock pistol. I found in the article, however, only a comparison between 9mm hollow point ammo and .45 ball ammo. This might be a comparison of apples to oranges, so to speak, for if one compares hollow point ammo in both cartridges, then the comparison lies heavily in favor of the .45, which can expand to well over an inch in its hollow-point configuration, dwarfing the 9mm characteristics.

As to magazine capacity, the storied history of the 1911 with its seven (now eight) round magazine shows that the .45, even in ball form, performs magnificently in comparison to the 9mm. See reports from our troops in the "Sand Box." I wonder why our special operations forces demand .45 pistols?

It is most definitely true that training with any handgun is the key to success. However, with the same training, a pistolero with a .45 will likely never need fifteen rounds to stop a gremlin.

The Glock has been so popular with law enforcement agencies, the story goes, because of its low cost and because even an idiot, by all reports, can shoot one. Nuff said.

So it appears to me that Officer Tackleberry offers a somewhat lopsided report - "Two Dogs" Lt.Col. USMCR (ret)

Sir:
A very interesting article with some good points and some fallacies. I note that ‘Officer Tackleberry’ likes to compare 9mm HP to the .45 NATO Ball ammo. Not exactly apples to apples. On any given shot, into any give area, the .45 hollow point (HP) will produce a more devastating wound that the 9mm, be it HP or Ball. It is a distraction to not admit that up front and let it go. It is not relevant to the good officer’s thesis.

The choice of the Glock is very personal. Personally, I don’t like the weapon. A Springfield Armory M1911 chambered in .45 ACP (shooting NATO Ball) is the reason I’m around to be writing this so I’ve seen no reason to reduce the impact of my rounds. Nothing against the Glocks – I think it becomes a “boxers or briefs” kind of argument - and I always encourage new shooters to try both and see what they like. I know several Glock shooters who have used heat shrink tubing to defeat the trigger safety of the Glock because it irritates their trigger finger after much shooting. I definitely recommend against this modification, but there it is. Shooting is very individualistic and these good folks were told the Glock is the only way to go so they won’t even try another platform although they aren’t happy with their choice.

As to the number of rounds, at under 10 feet distance (where the vast majority of shootings take place) if I need more than three rounds I’m dead anyway and reloading is not the issue. A ranking officer died in Iraq when he entered a room with four terrorists in it. He got off 7 shots of 9 mm from his 15 rd magazine, hit them all, but three of the terrorist were still alive when his men entered the room. Of course he was using ball ammo but the one shot stop is still a myth in most cases, even with hollow point ammo. It’s not something I want to play “you bet your life” on. My Colt Officer’s model [.45 ACP] is loaded with Hydra-Shoks. I have one in the tube and seven in the magazine and a spare magazine on the concealment holster. I can reload successfully if you are more than 10 to 15 feet away and if you are not, I shouldn’t need to reload. I practice a lot, as we all should, and I reload my practice ammo. I have a Kel-Tec P11 that I carry as a pocket pistol during the summer and as a backup when I can carry my Colt.

My preferred defense side arm is a revolver (in .45) but that is a little harder to conceal so is usually only for open carry or home defense. My family ranges in size from my 6 ft 2 in frame to my 4-ft 11-in wife. Our guns run from a .32 S&W long to a .380 Kel-Tec to my revolvers to the 9mm and Colt. Each member practices often with their gun of choice and reliably hits what the are aiming at. We all shoot the 9 mm for familiarity and proficiency even though I’m the only one who carries one full time. It is a backup for all of us.

A .32 with hollow points is not my weapon of choice, but it is what my wife will be fire in practice where a 9mm wouldn’t be. I have 12, 20, and .410 gauge shotguns because the 12 is too much for the ladies in the house. As I age, I’m beginning to think the 12 may be more than I want to shoot routinely as well. We may move to 20 gauge for comfort and that will help the ammo storage. I don’t reload shotgun rounds although I know some who do.

I guess my point is that, although I understand the advantages of a common round for the family or group, you should get firearms and stock ammo that the members will use. Get your long guns sized for the shooter (petite requires a “youth” stock length – put the butt plate in the bend of the elbow barrel pointing up; bend the forearm up alongside the stock, if the trigger finger is not at the trigger the stock is not the correct size) and then practice. A verity of ammo also allows for barter if needed but I think that if you try to force a caliber on a shooter that they are not comfortable with, they won’t practice and will fear to use the gun defeating the purpose of having it. I know it would be more efficient to stock nothing but 9 mm or .45 ACP but then I’d be the only armed member of my family. Now when we are out together at a restaurant we are a “mobile, gun rich environment” (quote thanks to John Connor of Guns magazine). For rifles we run from .22s to pistol cartridges to .30-30 to bigger. I prefer the lever guns for reliability, large magazine, and ease of use. They are faster for me than a bolt and more reliable than anything other than a single shot. I’ve never had a lever gun jam or miss feed. I can’t say that about bolts and semi-auto actions.

I get concerned when I read about the “everything in common” approaches. You need guns in your battery that will be used first and foremost. You also need guns that will get the job done. If you live in large bear county, a 9mm might scare off the bear or it might just annoy him. A .223 would not be my first choice if I was face to face with a large bear. On the other hand, a .50 BMG is too much gun for an urban dweller. You don’t want to punch a hole through your target and the next nine houses on the block. Each of us need to look at our situations realistically, minus our egos (mine is probably the biggest around), and decide what we must have, what we should have and what we’d like to have. The "must have” is a firearm that you will shoot and will have with you when you needed it. Everything else is a waste of time and money. If you can’t get to it when you need it, you do not have it! Just my not so humble opinion. - Captain Bart, USA Ret.

Jim:
To counter the "anti" mail that I'm sure you'll receive about "Tackleberry's" article, I'd like to say I think the guy is spot on. I love the Model 1911 and the .45 caliber, but, I think a Glock in 9mm makes much more sense for the majority of us in a survival situation. The lack of external safeties, the additional ammo capacity, and the better controllability of the 9mm make it a better choice for the vast majority of us.

Let's face it, very few of us get out and train at least once a week with a handgun, more like once a month if we're lucky. I think we can all agree that handgun shooting is a perishable skill. If you are not shooting a large caliber handgun, with external safeties, and doing the magazine changes (and malfunction) drills on a very regular basis, then I think you are probably not prepared to use it in any violent confrontation.

The reason I traded in the 1911 for a 9mm Glock was so I would have no external safeties to manipulate, have better controllability of my shots, and increased ammo capacity. So even if I don't get as much training in as I want, I can still be combat effective. More so than with a 1911 in .45 caliber. That's the bottom line here.

Not to open another can of worms, but I think this also relates to rifle caliber choice as well. A lot of folks insist on the 7.62mm for a rifle, for a lot of the same reasons you hear for .45 caliber for a handgun. I prefer the 5.56mm for my rifle because I can control it better, meaning more accurate shots, and carry more ammo to the gunfight. And I can also get by with less training, although rifle skills aren't quite as perishable as pistol. (BTW, I am not advocating less training, I am just saying this is the reality of most of our situations.)

As an added bonus, my wife can also shoot a 9mm pistol, and 5.56mm rifle. So I always have a built-in back-up partner which doubles my combat effectiveness. - Diz

Jim:
I can't agree about using trick ammunition to make up for bullet size. We are comparing apples and oranges here. The 9mm premium hollow point compares favorably with the .45ACP FMJ rounds, but it costs a lot more. Those big, cheap, FMJ practice rounds are the same ones I prefer for combat. A 9mm is a perfectly adequate weapon using premium ammo, but does it operate flawlessly? If you train with one load and stockpile another, you really don't know for sure, do you? In my humble opinion, if you have chosen a premium or non-standard ammunition for combat use, that the only thing you should shoot for training. Otherwise, it's little better than dry-fire practice. I don't like surprises and would hate to find out too late that that those beefed up +P premium bullets jam more often, or crack my pistol frame.

I don't want to argue about stopping power of relative cartridges. Both the 9mm and .45 have a lot of fans and I am not that uncomfortable with either of them. Compared to a rifle, all pistol rounds tend to look alike. Shot placement is definitely the most important factor. But in combat, you really have to have confidence in your weapon and for me the 9mm, with it's lower recoil and smaller diameter, does not inspire confidence. I want my pistol to kick up a fuss and make some racket. If I could be sure of meticulously clean weapons, I would probably still choose the heavier bullet for reliability of function. If I might have to fight with a sandy or muddy weapon, there is no choice. I have seen too many nines stop shooting unexpectedly when they get dirty.

Military operators like the .45, not just because we are limited to FMJ rounds, but because they always behave well. I believe that momentum carries and transfers energy more reliably than velocity. There is a lot to be said for the simplicity of a large, jacketed chunk of lead sailing along just shy of the speed of sound. No tricks, no gimmicks, just lots of lead, already expanded to .45 caliber. Close combat is quick and you may only get one shot. I would rather than one shot weigh 230 grains rather than half of that. - JIR

By way of the Appenzell Daily Bell: Germans Desperate Over EU, Greece

Rogers: Goldman May Fuel 20 Percent Market Tumble. (Out thanks to Brett G. for the link.)

GG suggested this Forbes opinion piece: Will Japan Default?

The Fox forwarded this: Greek Bailout Is a High-Wire Act. They are starting to use the "D" word. (Default.)

Items from The Economatrix:

Could Germany Quit Euro Over Greek Crisis?

Rivals May Not be Smiling at Goldman Sach's Predicament Long

Bank of Ireland Forced to Sell Off Assets

FEMA Faces Own Fiscal Emergency

Unemployment Rises in 24 States

RBS sent this from China Daily: Shelters part of long-term civil defense plan

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Rick pointed me to HomeFirefightingSystems.com, in Pollock Pines, California. They sell pumps, foam, gel, tanks and equipment that would be appropriate for retreats.

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Josh flagged this bit of Hoplophobic Political Correctness stupidity: Student suspended after finger gun incident.

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I found this linked at the Drudge Report: Mission Impossible: Escape from Europe. (Read between the lines, vis-a-vis Getting Out of Dodge, in other crises.) Meanwhile, we also read: Get ready for decades of Icelandic fireworks, and More from Eyjafjallajokull (a fascinating photo essay), and Volcano flight chaos leaves many passengers broke.

"Due to the second eruption of the Iceland volcano and further disruption to flights, our shipment of Wii stock will be delayed." - a Mindscape Corporation spokesperson, as reported by the editor of the Kotaku blog. (For some techno nerds, this might signal TEOTWAWKI.)

I just heard from my editor at the Plume Division of Penguin Books that Editorial Paidotribo has purchased the rights to produce a Spanish language edition of my non-fiction book "How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It".

---

Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

There are many areas of debate, speculation, opinion and urban legends when it comes to anything involving guns and/or self-defense, with handguns probably being at the top of this list.  I will share my experience, training and research to try to help with this debate.

The first thing to consider is what caliber is right for you and your family.  When it comes to establishing a caliber for your family’s security, there seems to be a belief that the .45 is the only way to go, especially in the semi-auto platform.  I couldn’t disagree more with the reasoning for this thought process and I am about to ruffle more than few feathers by making a case for the 9mm to be your ammo and platform of choice.

One of the things brought up is “knock down power” and this is one of those urban legends that needs addressed first.  Yes, a .45 has a greater weight and therefore more impact inertia/potential if it hits something solid, like bone.  So, if my only choice was .45 ball or some other caliber ball, like the 9mm, then I would consider the .45. 

But, if one takes the time to study the plethora of data available, you will see that most of the time people are not instantly incapacitated after being shot with a pistol, no matter what the caliber is.  There is an old saying that some of you may have already heard…What does a person do after being shot with a pistol? The same thing he was doing before he was shot with a pistol!  This may sound foolish but that is the reality of pistol caliber ammo.  This is also why many police agencies and military units have started phasing out or limiting the use of pistol caliber long gun platforms, such as the MP5, in favor of the more compact rifle caliber platforms.

I believe that the type of pistol ammo is more important than what the actual caliber is.  Winchester, Hornady and Speer are just three of the quality manufacturers out there that make awesome hollow-point, self-defense ammo for 9mm that have significant ballistic capabilities that exceed that of .45 ball.  The hollow-point bullets flare out when they meet resistance, sometimes to more than twice original size.  This causes significant wound channels, thus incapacitating the attacker.  This is why law enforcement carries hollow-point ammo and it’s extremely foolish that we don’t allow military to do so.

So, with the quality ammo options available today, why pigeon-hole yourself with a caliber that’s so big that it severely limits the amount of ammo that you can carry at one time?  In all semi-auto pistol platforms, the .45 caliber pistol holds a significantly smaller number of cartridges than most 9mm pistols.

We need to remember why we carry pistols and what their true purpose is.  The true purpose of the pistol is to provide a concealable, compact firearms platform that we can use to defend ourselves at close quarters, to fight our way to cover, to escape and/or get to a long-gun platform.  I recently read what was supposed to be a story about a sheriff in Texas.  Whether or not the story is true, I do believe that it reflects the mindset we all should have when it comes to the use of firearms for self-defense.  The story states that the sheriff was attending some sort of social function when a woman approached him and asked him if he was "expecting trouble" since he was wearing his pistol.  The sheriff told her no, that if he was really expecting trouble, then he would have brought his rifle. 

It’s not my intention to state that pistol calibers are totally ineffective and/or should be ignored.  I believe that it is more of a perspective and awareness issue.  Since I know why I carry a pistol and what it’s intended purpose is (close quarters self-defense, fight our way to cover/long-gun platform, or escape as mentioned earlier), I would prefer the 17 rounds of quality 9mm ammo available in my Glock 17 over the 12 rounds or less available in most 45 semi-autos.  Even my sub-compact Glock 26 affords me 10 rounds per magazine in an easily concealable format.

One distinct advantage of the high-capacity of most 9mm platforms available over the .45s is that you have to perform fewer magazine changes.  Magazine changes, especially under stress, are something we all need to practice on a regular basis.  With that being said, someone with what is arguably the most popular .45 platform, the 1911, must perform two magazine changes before they meet/exceed the amount of ammo that I have in my Glock 17 before I am required to make a single magazine change.  You must keep in mind that every time you make a magazine change, you are temporarily out of the fight.  Also, how many of you carry one extra magazine when you conceal-carry your handgun, let alone two?

Now, before all of the hate mail comes in claiming that I am “disrespecting” the 1911, I want to clarify something.  I am a fan of the 1911 and its quality design, regardless of the manufacturer.  It’s one of the most pleasurable handguns I have ever shot, bar none.  But, in my humble opinion, why carry a gun that only gives 7 or 8 rounds per magazine when I carry one that is similar in size but has 15 rounds, like the Glock 19? 

We broached the area of “knock down power” power earlier in this discussion and now I want to delve into it a little deeper.  Based on my research and training, I believe the standard we need to evaluating is not the size and weight of a bullet (which are the biggest arguments in favor of the .45s) but the ability of the bullet, and most of all the shooter, to incapacitate an attacker.

What I mean by the ability of the bullet has already been mentioned previously in regards to hollow-point ammo.  But, the ability of the shooter is directly tied to shot placement, especially under stress.  Can you repeatedly hit different vital areas, such as the head, with your current handgun?  Can you do so while moving forward, backward and/or sideways? Can you do so one handed, especially with your “off-hand”?
Now, take you out of this equation and insert your family members.  Can your spouse and/or children, especially teenagers, adequately perform the above listed tasks with the handguns that you have selected for the family self-defense arsenal?  Can the smaller stature members of your family or preparedness group handle training with .45 or even a .40 caliber handgun?

We need to keep in mind a key factor we know about individual performance during the stress of a combat situation.  This “factor” that I am speaking of is that a person drops to about 50% of their ability under the stress of combat.  Since this is the case, we know that we all must have quality training and practice on a regular basis.  How much practice/training is a person going to be willing to put in with a hand gun that beats them up?

When I was in the police academy, I saw two videos that really opened my eyes in regards to shot placement.  The first video was from the cruiser of a state trooper who was in a fight with a man who ended up shooting the trooper with a .22 caliber pistol.  The .22 caliber bullet went through the trooper’s side and pierced his aorta.  I watched this large, muscular trooper who was a former professional football player bleed out internally and die.  Lucky shot? Yes.  But, the small caliber bullet still killed him.

The second video I watched involved a domestic violence incident in which a female was shot point blank in the forehead with a .357 revolver.  When the police and EMTs arrived, she was still conscious and sitting on the couch.  The bullet had glanced off the skull plate of her forehead and traveled under the skin of her scalp all the way to the back of her head before becoming lodged in the muscle of her neck. 
Now, prior to viewing these two videos, I was of the opinion that being shot with a .357 revolver meant certain death.  But, not only did the female in video #2 survive, so did the man who shot the trooper in video #1.  You see, the trooper in video #1 had shot his attacker five times center mass with his issued .357 handgun.  Yet, his attacker still shot him and still alive to this day (R.I.P. Trooper Coates).  I guess the old adage of “I’d rather have a hit with a .22 than a miss with a 5” artillery shell” still applies.

Another factor that must be considered by most, if not all us, is the cost associated with achieving and maintaining confidence and proficiency with your chosen firearm’s platforms, especially hand guns.  To maintain necessary proficiency, we must live-fire practice and train with the chosen hand gun on regular basis.  As of right now, 9mm ball practice ammo sells for about $165 per 600 round case while .45 ball practice ammo sells for about $290 per 600 round case.  Quality Speer Gold Dot Hollow Point 9mm self-defense ammo sells for about $23 per 20 round box, while the .45 sells for about $28 per 20 round box.  As you can see, it is much more cost effective to train with and properly equip the 9mm platform as opposed to the. 45.  Then you can use the money saved to obtain other necessary preparedness items.
As you can tell, I am a fan of the Glock family of pistols.  But, I want to clarify the fact that I favor the 9mm family only, which includes the Models 17, 19 and 26.  There are several reasons as to why and I will try to name a few of them in short order.

First, Glock’s have no external safeties or de-cock levers and their safety features are internal.  There are some that would try to argue that this makes the Glock an unsafe platform.  If that was the case, then thousands of police officers wouldn’t be carrying them because their respective departments wouldn’t want the liability.  The primary safety on all firearms has always been, and always will be, keeping the trigger area free of obstructions, especially your finger!  I have also read of several instances where officer’s have forgotten to reset their de-cock lever or to take their gun off of safe and thus the gun didn’t fire when they deployed it in self-defense.  Several of these officers were shot and unfortunately some were killed.  Is it a training issue? Yes.  But it has happened more that what most people think and it has happened to me while training with a Smith and Wesson 4506.

Secondly, the 9mm Glock family has many interchangeable parts, including magazines.  The full-size magazine for the model 17 will work in the both the 19 and the 26 and the 19’s magazine will fit in the 26.

Next, most full sized .45 caliber models are physically way too big for smaller-statured people and both the .40 and .45 caliber platforms have way too much bark/recoil for many people. 

I think a serious consideration needs to be the availability of ammo and spare parts in a TEOTWAWKI environment.  Since 9mm is common the world over, I believe ammo will be available to at least barter for, which also means it’s probably a good item to barter with.  Also, since Glocks are very common in the U.S. and worldwide, then I believe spare parts will be somewhat easier to come by.

Lastly, the 9mm Glock family has repeatability of use no matter what the size.  In a self-defense situation, my wife, who is not very familiar with a multitude of handguns, can pick up any of my Glocks and know exactly how it functions.  To me and my way of thinking, this is a huge home security bonus.

I challenge you to take the time to seriously research the 9mm ammo and platforms available with an open mind.  I did and I am happy with the results of my research.  I also stake my life my life on the results every day. I believe you will see that there are simple, effective and cost-efficient options out there, with Glocks being at the top of that list.

Sir,
I would like to thank you for your excellent site. I have been steadily working my way through your archives for the past several months now. I have been a prepper for quite a while thanks to my upbringing. However, for me it is more of a serious hobby than anything else. Being in the military and changing duty stations fairly rapidly is not conducive to long term prepping, as has been mentioned before on your site. That does not mean that I cannot plan however. I have attached a “List of Lists” in MS-Excel spreadsheet format. The initial worksheet is a link page with each of the lists labeled. You should be able to click on the list you want and it will take you to it, if not then use the worksheet tabs at the bottom of the page.

I have included in these lists all the recommended material from the newbies page of your site with the exception of videos. I have also included material from your archives that I felt pertinent (and that I have covered so far), as well as some of my own wants. This list is not complete to say the least, but I would be comfortable calling it list "1.0". There is still a lot of work to be done on it but I will be on my way to Afghanistan soon and it will be unlikely I will have Internet or computer access for some time. Therefore I am sending it to you for you to do with as you will. Maybe some other individual can profit from the work I have completed thusfar, or perhaps there is a way to make it a community project that others can add to with their recommendations. Allowing anyone to pick and choose what works for them (It is modular!)

My basic format to date has been three simple columns: Item, Remarks about the item, and Web links associated with that item.

God Bless, - ZZP from Texas

JWR Replies: Thanks for your efforts! I've just added the spreadsheet to the blog site, where it will be permanently linked. (It is now linked in the left-hand menu.)

James Wesley:

On Friday, eight more banks were closed according to this article.

I did a little research and found out that so far this year, 50 banks with total assets of approximately $30.4 Billion (you have to add the numbers up in the total assets column) have failed according to this site.

By this date last year (April 17, 2009) 25 banks with $12.5 Billion in assets had failed according to the companion site. How's that "hope and change" working for you? This could be a record year if the pace keeps up. - S.M.

Economics and Investing:

Yishai recommended this article: Released to Near Silence, the U.S. Treasury 2009 Financial Report Shows Dire Course

Sue C. suggested an essay by Herb Mayer: An Economics Lecture No Student Will Ever Hear

Items from The Economatrix:

10 US Cities in Economic Freefall

Exxon's Income Tax: $0

John Paulson: The Man Who Made Billions Betting on the US Housing Crash

Goldman Sach's Client-First Pledge Exposed as Lie

Black Gold, Yellow Gold (The Mogambo Guru)

Hunter in Alaska spotted this blog article: The Whiskey Standard (by way of Instapundit).

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Our thanks to R.B.S. for sending this: Copper thieves dismantle office building's roof.

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Crime Prediction Software is Here and It's a Very Bad Idea. (Thanks to F.G. for the link.)

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Ferd liked this Lifehacker article: Make a Waterproof Fire Starter Out of Dryer Lint (and Some Other Trash)

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Brian B. sent this: Rallies supporting the United States' 2nd Amendment were held across the country Monday

"Somewhere ahead I expect to see a worldwide panic-scramble for gold as it dawns on the world population that they have been hoodwinked by the central banks' creation of so-called paper wealth. No central bank has ever produced a single element of true, sustainable wealth. In their heart of hearts, men know this. Which is why, in experiment after experiment with fiat money, gold has always turned out to be the last man standing." - Richard Russell

Notes from JWR:

I'm scheduled to be interviewed by libertarian survivalist Reginald Kaigler on The DEMCAD Show (a Freedomizer Radio podcast), this evening (Monday) from 6-to-7 p.m. Eastern Time.

---

Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

I want to bring up a topic that should be critical to those trying to prepare. I am one of the folks that wants to survive in place in a suburban environment. The serious weak link in any survival program is that of water. We have all read the endless articles about finding and preparing potable (drinkable) water. The endless stories of filtering, boiling, bleach-treating. I believe one area has been overlooked. Proviso: The following is presented for educational purposes only, and should only be considered in life and death situations!

Can I tell you all a little about my background? I was one of the many starving college kids in the 1970s while trying to make my way through college to earn a degree in engineering I took many jobs. One of the jobs I took was that of a "Street flushers helper". What a street flusher does is go out in the small hours of the morning and flush the streets in a large truck filled with water. The irony of all this is that it was in Seattle, where we normally get 40 inches of rainfall a year. I know, I know it sounds crazy but they were willing to pay for it and I needed the money. So where does a street flusher get all that water? That’s where the story gets interesting.

The lowly hydrant, you know those red, white and yellow things you can’t park in front of. They are everywhere and no one gives a thought about them. If you are a street flusher they were very dear indeed. I had my favorites, because it was part of my job to keep the truck full of water. I always wanted to find the high flowing hydrants. That’s when I was taught the laws of gravity for the very first time. We had a hydrant that we used over and over again because it was the lowest hydrant on the system. And boy did it put out water, I could fill a 1,500 gallon water truck in just under 12 minutes. We had at least 115 Pounds per Square Inch (PSI). On those very cold nights you want to be out of the truck just as short as time as possible.

So how do you get access to all that water at the hydrant? Remember folks we are talking about grid down and people are suffering from dehydration and you need water now. Well, that’s where the hydrant wrench comes in. Please don't confuse this with a pipe wrench a plumber would use. The nuts on a hydrant are Pentagon shape so you need a special wrench. If you use a pipe wrench you will permanently mar the nuts and I want to strongly discourage that. This is a special wrench that you can buy online, they are not cheap. A new wrench would run you about $50. I bought mine through eBay many years ago for 24 dollars. I prefer the stout two piece wrench I do recommend the heavier wrenches, the lowest hydrant on your system may not have been opened in years. The cheap heads can break and need to be replaced. I also recommend getting a [wrench handle extension] "cheater" pipe. We used a six-foot piece of one inch galvanized pipe we called "The Staff". Any hydrant will yield with a long enough lever arm. This is specially important for the female preppers (The longer the lever arm the less physical strength needed). If the cost of the wrench seems a bit steep remember the cost of all that bottled water stashed in your garage.

When I would go out and crack open the hydrant at o-dark-thirty in the morning, I would appreciate having a stout hydrant wrench in my hands. Between rust and way too many coats of paint some hydrants will still refuse to yield. One trick I would do would try to close the nut slightly tighter to try and break the rust free. If any hydrant gave us too much grief we would notify the water purveyor that they had a problem hydrant.

You could be a real lifesaver with this resource. Remember Charlton Heston playing Moses in a Cecil B DeMille movie, where he struck the rock with his staff and out poured the water? Well, with your wrench and your staff you too could save hundreds of lives if you pre-locate the lowest hydrant on your system. This could bring a whole new meaning to finding your favorite watering hole.

Grid up or grid down water will always seek the lowest point in the system. If you’re local water tower is empty so what? There are still millions of gallons of fresh water in the system. All you need to know is how to find it. Here is a bonus that most folks forget: Most meters do not have a backflow valve (A one way check valve). So as long as some one in any house or apartment leaves a tap open that water loses its vacuum and returns to the main line and the lowest hydrant on the system. In undulating country side there will be pockets of trapped water everywhere. So you live in a dead flat area? Well, the water is still there--all you have to do is go and get it. Most hydrants are held down with 8 to 12 3/4 quarter inch diameter bolts. Some are meant to break away in case of a crash but most are not. It will take some work and you will be breaching a closed system, so you had better not do this on a whim. Remember folks: do this in life and death situations only! It would subsequently take a chlorine shock to restore the integrity of the line. [And of course ithe hydrant would have to be re-assembled for the system to ever be capable of being used in its normally intended manner.]

So just how much water are we talking about? Well if we do some rough math together you can find millions of gallons of unused water. If you’re concerned about stealing the water please make a five dollar donation now to your water supplier, that would allow you to take 1,000 gallons of fresh water with a clear conscience. Most water lines are 8 to 12 inches in diameter. An 8 inch line holds about 2 gallons per lineal foot. A 12 inch line holds 6 gallons per lineal foot. So if each hydrant is a 1,000 feet apart plus you have all the secondary lines flowing back into the main line you have thousands of gallons of fresh water ready for harvesting.
Back to the math, if you have a water tower 100 feet in the air the head pressure will give you 44 PSI at ground level. Do you need 44 PSI to wet your whistle? No, you need 3 PSI like you get from a drinking fountain. So you need about 18 feet of head pressure on the line. Hence the search for the lowest hydrant on the system. And yes I did account for the water line being below the frost line at 4 feet and the outlet being 2 feet off the ground. This means water in the system will flow even in sub freezing Conditions.

I used to love the hydrants in industrial areas. These hummers were on 12 to 18 inch lines, talk about volume. If you live in an industrial area you are in luck. First who in their right mind would seek out water in an industrial park? Second the volumes are there. One word of hydrant caution if the hydrant is purple or the piping or the meter is purple that is industrial water and can never be used for human consumption. Sometimes the hydrant would have a sign on it “non potable water“. Steer clear of all things purple. Another source is some old buildings had water towers on the roof. These towers were used to flood the stand pipes and sprinklers in case of fire. This could be a valuable resource.

The hydrant itself is just a large cast iron spigot with its frost free valve below the frost line. The older ones did not have the enamel coating on the inside so your first drink will be a bit rusty tasting. Worried about Fido and his aim? First Fido aims for the base of the hydrant not the top. Second if your concerned about it spray the hydrant down with a 5% bleach solution before you start. I dare say that hydrant being out in the direct sun is far cleaner than the company water cooler.

So you don't have a 1,500 gallon water truck to locate and transport the water back to your location? I can think of some ways on harvesting the water. I used a four mile radius on Google Earth around my house. Once I found my location I asked for a terrain map. Just 2,000 feet south of me is a low spot in the terrain. After a short walk I found that there was a hydrant there. This is certainly not the lowest on the system but it is close by. I do know that the hydrant will still have water long after all the neighboring houses have gone dry. When that hydrant goes dry I will have to increase my search radius to another lower hydrant. So you found your low hydrant and you have hydrant wrench. Remember you only need the cheater pipe on very stubborn rusty hydrants. To capture the water I would bring two 5-gallon food grade buckets. You might be able to stash these buckets in a near by location. I would fill one bucket at a time by drizzling water in than I would transfer the water into 10 one gallon milk jugs. I plan on riding my bicycle down to the hydrant then walking it back by wiring the 70 pounds of water to its frame. Is it the most safe and efficient means of transporting water? Probably not but this will work for me.

In closing 5,000 people die each day because of water-related illnesses. I watched thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims walk right past hydrants in their search for water. While many in desperation will drink from the city duck pond, all the while millions of gallons of fresh water will go unharvested right beneath their feet. You and your family should never be the one straining muck through your teeth hoping the diarrhea that follows won’t kill you. There must be a small group of leaders that will show the people the way. I hope and pray that you will be one of them. Again, the preceding is for life and death situations only!

Greetings!
I'm a SurvivalBlog addict who lives in the coastal suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia, and last night at roughly 11:25 p.m. my shower was interrupted by an earthquake!

It wasn't strong enough to move furniture. In fact, as earthquakes go it was pretty weak (later revealed as a 3.8), but since we're near the coast I wasn't taking any chances, and neither was my wife!

Seconds after it was stopped I was drying off and we were both getting dressed. We locked the doors, shut the windows, grabbed our phones and our boy, put the dogs in the car and headed to higher ground.

All in all I estimate it took us less than three minutes to hit the road!

We were woefully under-prepared in terms of tangibles. We topped the car off with fuel at high ground (a lookout point) and bought water and food. We also took a bunch of money out of our accounts.

Local talk back radio was the only immediate source of information but it gave us a very good idea of how strong and far reaching the quake was. We camped out on a high spot overlooking the city. I'm not sure if my placement was wise, but I intend to find out for future reference.

After it became clear through local reporting that the
quake epicenter was not out out at sea we waited for an hour and headed home.

The highlight for me was finding out that my wife was every bit as pro-active as I was!

The worrying factor was the number of people that hung around on their front lawns like garden gnomes on valium, even after the Boxing Day tsunamis!

It seems most of us have short memories...

Thanks as always for this brilliant operation you run here. Without it I would probably have been another one of those garden gnomes, and though it would have been fine this time, perhaps next time it won't. Kindest regards, - Bodes

By way of the Appenzell Daily Bell: George Soros Warns that the EU May Collapse.

From Damon S.: 14 Pieces of Really Bad News for the U.S. Economy

The number that I mentioned in the blog on Saturday was too low. Here is the correction: U.S. shuts eight more banks; 50 total have been closed this year.

Items from The Economatrix:

Consumer Mood Unexpectedly Worsens in April

US Housing Starts Up

Bill to Restore Jobless Aid Clears Senate Hurdle

Pensions Crisis "Threatens Entire UK Economy"

$4.00 Gas by the End of 2010?

Yishai sent this Instapundit item: U.S. Military Warns of Oil Shortage by 2015.

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Reader Damon S. suggested a web site with some free plans for building beehives.

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Matt B. mentioned a clever "stealth" house built into a grain silo.

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David R. was the first of several readers to mention this: MIT Student Develops Cutting Edge Low Cost Healing for the Developing World

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;
Here once the embattled farmers stood;
And fired the shot heard round the world."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord Hymn, (1837), immortalizing the skirmish at the Old North Bridge, Concord, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775

Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

When you think of all of the needed equipment during or after an emergency, I am willing to bet that optical devices aren’t at the top of the list.  We will think about and plan for just about everything except seeing what is around us.  While pondering things to prepare for, I had the thought: What would be some items that would take some doings to replace?  While it is highly doubted that FEMA would come to your rescue I am almost certain that they will not arrive carrying the items that I'll point out.

Glasses
If you wear glasses or contacts, the very first thing you should plan on having extras is some glasses.  While it is true that for most contact lens is a good choice for anyone active in the outdoors, glasses would or at least should last a lot longer.  Not only are the easier to clean than contact, they require not much more than the end of your shirt to keep functional.  To minimize the scratches, use one of those pieces of material specifically made for cleaning glasses.  While it is true that we all need a good case to keep them in, most of us don’t use one because they are always on our face. Remember what we say here, two in one and one is none?  Well if the next time you updated your eyeglasses prescription, be sure and order two pairs instead of just one.  Most places will give you discounted pricing on the second pair and you can save some money by choosing as your second pair a set of glasses that aren’t as fashionable as your everyday pair.  During normal times, glasses can be replaced in less than a week, so even if you had to wear the not-so-pretty ones for a week, what would it hurt?  Can you imagine the headache you’d have after going so long without glasses as your eyes are constantly trying to bring everything into focus?  This would be the place for prescription glass wearers…the next time you update your glasses, buy two pair.  Doctors recommend that we have our eyes checked every two years.  If you went tomorrow to the doctor and purchased two pair and followed up with a visit two years from now, you’d have four sets of glasses.  Two that are current and two that will get you buy until better comes along.  For those of you that wear just the generic reading glasses that are picked up at local pharmacy, you should just simply buy four pair as soon as possible.  If you had extra and wanted a truly great item to barter with, buy several pairs of various strengths.  People will give an arm and leg to be able to see.  I can’t imagine trying to survive what could be the worst event in your life with limited or no vision.

Think you are okay as you sit today?  Think of this situation.  A couple of weeks ago we carried our children to see the Circus and had a blast.  But what would have happened if pandemonium had set in and everyone decided they wanted to leave at the same time?  My first course of action would be to hang on to my children for dear life until we were all outside and accounted for.  But how would you feel if as a prescription glass wearer your glasses got knocked off in the stampede as they most likely would.  What if everything seems better outside but now you can’t see more than several feet in front of you.  What if one of your children or your spouse got separated and now you can’t see clearing enough for any distance to find them?  Good luck getting someone to help you either as they are trying to get someplace safe themselves.  Personally, I would not even be able to drive home without my glasses.  So if you wear glasses, make sure you have a replacement pair close at all times.  If you were able to keep an extra pair at work, at home, and in the car that would cover practically all the places you spend the most time.  I feel like in the event that I had to have them, between those three places I should be covered.

Binoculars
The very next set of optics you should purchase should be a decent set of binoculars.  Nothing says safety like avoiding trouble in the first place.  If you can watch from a distance, you may be able to avoid a lot of heartache latter.  It doesn’t matter if you are looking for wild game or running surveillance on what is going on around your own home or retreat, you can’t properly react to what you can’t see.  If you needed to get from point A to point B under severe conditions, it is better to scan the area as best you can for additional threats.  The further out you can spot those threats the better.  Often the best way to survive is not being seen or found.  In every book I have read on WTSHTF, binoculars have always come into place to create a tactical advantage whether it is putting game on the table or saving your own bacon.  So buy the very best you can afford and don’t skimp on quality.  Let’s go over some binocular basics so that you will choose the right pair for the task at hand.  One of the first requirements of a good set of binoculars is that they must be waterproof.  You never know what kind of action they may see so make sure that they will at least pass that test.  The next thing I would look for is what they call armor coated or rubberized so that they can take on a little more punishment.  Again, this is to protect your investment in what could be a piece of equipment that will last many years.

After you take into account the different sizes, i.e. 8x42 compared to 10x50, the most significant difference it which type of prism do you pick.  The binoculars that use the Porro prisms are the ones we are all most familiar with.  These are the ones that have the offset from the lens to the eye piece.  The advantages of the Porro prisms are that there are many more models to choose from and the costs are more in line with what most people are willing to spend.  One could argue that you can get more bang for the buck by going with a set of binoculars that incorporate the Porro prisms.  Porro prism binoculars have a single pivot point between the two lenses making them easier to adjust the distance between your eyes.    While it is true that they deliver the best value for the dollar, they also have some drawbacks.  From reading several reviews on binoculars while looking for the “best” set for the money, I noticed that many times customers reported that the waterproof and fog proof attributes either flat out failed or over time ceased to exist.  It is also hard to find a suitable set of offset binoculars that are truly compact, or maybe we should say as compact as they could be.  If you purchase a set of binoculars that use Porro prisms, then hold out for what they call BAK-4 prisms as they are considered the best right now.  Some use a BAK-7 prism, but they just aren’t as good as the 4’s.  Generally speaking, it is easier to find better optics and by that I mean better coated optics as the cost for manufacturing can be spent on the glass and not the prism.  My guess is because this design has been around for decades and thus the options are greater.

Now let’s look the other option in prisms.  That is the roof prism.  These are found in the binoculars that cost a little more and in some cases a lot more.  Roof prism binoculars can be spotted from across the room.  This is because the lens for each eye is lined up to for a single tub for each side of the binoculars.  By design, it is easier for companies to ensure that they are both waterproof and fog proof.  Also because of the straight tubes, you end up with a more compact set of binoculars.  Compactness may not matter while pulling your time in the LP/OP, but if you are on the move, it will matter a lot.  Because of the straight tubes, it is a little more difficult to adjust these for the spacing between the eyes.  The biggest downside I see is that you get a really good set of roof prism binoculars; you have to get in that $300 and up range.

The next thing to decide is which size do I need?  Binoculars are often classified as compact, mid-size, full-size, and zoom or astronomical.  For our purposes, we’ll pass on the astronomical as we would rather spend the money on something else, maybe another pair of binoculars.  As with any other tool, each size was designed for a specific task.  I would recommend that you own tow pair, one compact and one full size.  To understand how they are sized, you should understand what the numbers mean.  When you see a set advertised as 8x42, the first number represents the number of times an image is magnified when you look through them.  The second number is the size in millimeters that the objective lens or the lens opposite the eye.  Be careful of not getting caught up with buying the biggest set of numbers you can.  The higher the first number or magnification is, the harder it will be to keep them focused on something.  Get something in the 12x range or higher and it will feel like you have the shakes if you look through them too long as it will detect the slightest movement in your hands.  Expects suggest that you stay with something in the 7 or 8 range for your first number.  The second number is just as important.  Bigger is better but you will also be giving up the compactness of them as they will weigh more as that lens gets larger.  The larger this lens, the more light that goes into the binocular and the sharper the image will look.  This is called the exit pupil.  The actual diameter of the exit pupil is easy to compute.  You take the second number and divide it by the first.  For example, a pair of 8x42 binoculars will have an exit pupil of 5.25mm.  For a comparison, the human eyes in excellent condition have about a 7mm pupil opening.  So the closer you can stay to that number the more you’ll see even in dim light.  What does this mean?  With all things considered equal, a compact set of binoculars in 8x21 would be better than a set of 12x25.  The 8x21 set would have an exit pupil of 2.63mm while the 12x25 would be 2.08mm.  You’ll be able to see more at dusk with the 8x21 than with the 12x25.  This may seem backwards as the magnification is 33% more (8 vs. 12), but without enough light entering the front of the lens, your eyes can’t process the images correctly.  Still we haven’t answered the question of what size to buy.  I would suggest a pair of 7x50, giving you an exit pupil of 7.14 which is great, and a pair of 7x35 or 8x40 giving you an exit pupil of 5.00 each.  I would treat the later as my compacts and the former as the full-size binoculars.  Some compacts that are in the 10x25 range will only give you an exit pupil of 2.5 so don’t expect to see much unless it is the middle of the day.

Now that we have given you some ideas for binoculars, we need to talk about accessories.  The first thing I would purchase would be a decent case to keep them in.  After that and probably just as important, I would upgrade the neck strap.  I am partial to the ones like Cabela's or Bass Pro Shops sell that are part neck strap and part harness.  The harness system keeps you binoculars from bouncing and banging around while you are walking/running.  They keep them strapped close to your chest and easy to access.  I would also purchase a lens cleaning pens to keep the lens clean and free from scratches.

Rifle Scopes
After you have filled the bill for your eyeglasses and binoculars, you next most important piece of optical equipment will be that of a rifle scope.  A rifle scope, when properly adjusted, will allow pinpoint accuracy and less ammo down range.  We are not talking about spending the small fortune on the high dollar scopes designed for sniping or bench rest shooting but those more common on your average big game rifle.  The numbers for rifle scopes are the same used in binoculars.  The first number notes the amount of magnification and the later the size of the optical or outside lens.  When you see a scope described as a 3-9x40, this means that the magnification can be adjusted with a twist of the eyepiece from a magnification of 3 time to that of 9 times what we can see with the naked eye.  And again the last number tells you that the objective lens is 40mm.  This seems to be the most common setup on deer rifles around my area.   When you go to buy your rifle scope, never skimp on quality.  You’ll pay for it later in the end.  A furniture salesman once told me that the most expensive furniture you can buy is the cheapest because you’ll replace it more often in the long run.  This logic applies with optics as well.  You don’t have to spend a fortune to have a scope that will last a lifetime, but don’t expect to find it in the closeout bin either.  Look for a manufacturer that has been around for a while or at least offers a lifetime warranty on their product.  Manufactures that will not warrant their product forever know that the product will not last forever.  I would stick with Leupold, Nikon, Redfield, etc.  Another rule of thumb that I have used on every gun I have dressed out is not to spend more than half the cost or value of the gun on optics.  For instance if you purchase or trade for a rifle and you feel like the gun is worth $700, then try to spend no more than $350 on the scope.  When I buy a rifle and decide to put a scope on it, I use this formula and look to buy all the scope I can get for that amount of money.  I can’t tell you the number of times I have seen someone walking around at a gun show with what I call a mismatch.  What this means is that the gun will be a nice guns but immediately you’d have to upgrade the scope.  When you see this, factor out the scope that is currently mounted on the gun knowing you’ll replace it later.  You don’t have to mention it to the seller, because then you’ll have to listen to all the reasons he chose that brand or model.  Sometimes you’ll get lucky and be able to pick up an average rifle with an exceptional scope that often you’ll move to another gun.

After you have chosen the right scope for your rifle, you’ll need to know how you want to mount it.  I would suggest that you spend some time looking at the various mounting options from someplace like Midway USA.  (www.midwayusa.com). It would be well worth the money to standardize the mounting system commonly called rings and mount.  The rings are what hold the actual scope to the mount that is screwed down to the receiver of the rifle.  For instance if you have several rifles, and you could find the mounts like the Weaver or rail-type mount, you could easily switch the scope from one rifle to another.  You would need to remind yourself that with each change, you would need to re-zero the rifle. 

In order for the scope to function like it was supposed to, you’ll need to know as little something about the caliber you are shooting.  You need to know what the maximum effective range is for you caliber before you decide on the type of optics to purchase.  For instance you wouldn’t really want an EOTech Holographic sight on a .30-06 as they are designed for action a lot closer in.  A perfect example is that here in North Carolina the average shot at a deer in my area is inside of 200 yards.  With a kill area for vital organs somewhere around 6-8 inches, that gives you some wiggle room.  So I have my .270 Winchester rifle zeroed in at 1 inch high at 100 yards and it puts it at about 1 inch low at 200 yards and I’ve taken deer out to 300 yards without adjusting where I place the crosshairs.  They have some scopes out that Nikon and Redfield make that can be adjusted to you specific caliber and bullet weight that will allow you to shoot out to 600 yards without readjusting the scope.  This will cover almost any range most of us will ever need.  For accessories here, be sure and buy the lens covers like those offered by Butler Creek.  These are great at protecting you investment.  You might also consider buying the light shades that some manufactures offer not in case you are ever faced with setting up your position with the sun in your face.  A bad position but it might be all you have.

Night Vision
The next important piece of equipment that you should look to is something in the night vision area.  I have read on many blogs that if you can’t fight effectively in the night, that you won’t be alive come daybreak.  This is very true if others know where you are in the event the balloon goes up.  The first goal here to get something that will give you an advantage or at least level the playing field.  This is the next area of prepping for me.  I would love to hear from others that have more knowledge and experience than me on this topic.

Conclusion
When thinking about optics, think about looking from close-up to as far out as possible.  Spending hard earned money on a great scope is not much good if you lose your glasses and can’t see anything else.  So think glasses first, if you need them, and then go from there.  Add to the items described above would also be a good rangefinder to lay out distances and then a spotting scope for when you need to watch the same area for an extended length of time.  This should round out a great selection of optics that will serve you for many years to come.

James,
As a geologist (masters degree) I have written for 30 years on issues of geologic hazards for numerous publications and made presentations to governmental entities regarding same. I preach preparedness for disaster as a way of mitigation for the inevitable. This is my heads up for your readers.

The unpronounceable Icelandic volcano (Eyjafjallajokull) that is currently erupting and disrupting air traffic mostly over Europe is becoming quite a demonstration of natures ability to mess with our technology. A much bigger worry is a nearby volcano called Katla which is also located under a huge ice cap on iceland. Katla is one of the most dangerous volcanoes on the island and in the northern hemisphere. There seems to be a historic connection between the eruptions of Eyjafjallajokull and Katla which is potentially a very bad thing. These volcanoes are of a scale significant enough to literally cool the climate enough to effect agriculture on a world wide basis. One of the eruptions of Katla is being tied to the french revolution (famine) and if you don't think that major social upheavals can be food related, then you need to be reading the P.E.T.A. web site not this one.

In other words, if this volcanic system starts to really clear it's throat and start singing, we won't be worrying about global warming for a while. But we will be worried about the food lines and rationing cards put out by the government to control the flow of rare commodities such as edibles. A serious volcanic event is just about all it would take to through many world economies that are teetering on the brink regardless, right over the edge. Massive quantities of SO2 thrown into the stratosphere will cool the planet rapidly and likely could give us several years of terrible harvests. Get your pantry in order if it's not already.

For some historical background, see: How an Icelandic volcano helped spark the French Revolution.

Best, - F.B., 14 miles from the nearest asphalt road.

Mr. Rawles,

Just wanted to pass along a link to an MSN story about the volcano erupting in Iceland. My eyebrow went up when I saw the words "Interwoven World" in the headline. Of course they don't go very deep into the possible disruptions this kind of event can bring about.

Also, I was curious if you are familiar with the BBC science documentary series "Connections" that was first aired in the 1970s. It had many interesting segments, but the first episode was my favorite. The host of the show used an example of a blackout that hit New York City in 1965. He discussed how people dealt with the disruption with the expectation that things were going to be fixed and then life would go back to normal. The power did come back after five hours, but the host did then put a question to the viewer of what would they do if the power did not come back. What would they do? Where would they go?

I've always been a "What If" thinker, and when I saw this in a class many years ago, it added a whole new level of thought that sticks with me to this day.

My wife and I appreciate your efforts and hope for your continued success. We just received our copy of the "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course and are starting to get ourselves organized as best we can.

Thank you, - Sean J. in Washington State

James:
Vaerity mentioned, in her valuable post, that she would like to pursue some rifle training. I've got one word for her: Appleseed! Ladies shoot free, and she already possesses the preferred "Liberty Training Rifle" - the Ruger 10/.22. She will experience two full days of high quality rifle marksmanship instruction, for the cost of a bargain box of .22 LR ammunition. The bulk-packed ammo is still under $20 per box [of 550 cartridges.]. You just can't find a bigger bang for the buck!! Check out teh Appleseed web site for scheduled events in North Carolina. Best Wishes, - S.H. in Georgia

GG flagged this piece by Tyler Durden, over at Zero Hedge: Why Are Silver Sales Soaring? That is significant news. Think about it: Annualized, that means that effectively, the entire US silver mining production is being devoted to producing Silver Eagles planchets. The law of supply and demand is inescapable. So I'm I standing by my long term price predictions for silver.

Also from GG: 33 states out of money to fund jobless benefits.

Reader Chad S. notes: The Federal government deems all $5, $10 and $20 Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) minted before the 1996 series to be unfit for circulation. (Scroll down to Page 3.)

Items from The Economatrix:

California Jobless Rate Hits 12.6% in March

Goldman's Stock Loss Dwarfs Possible Penalty

US Home Reposessions Hit Five Year High

 The latest from Nanny State Britannia: Caravanner, 61, prosecuted for having Swiss Army knife in his glovebox... to cut up fruit on picnics.

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Meanwhile, in the Land of the Free, we read these two news items: Heat builds on both sides of open-carry gun debate and Arizona to allow concealed weapons without permit.

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J.D.D. sent this: Single Mom Uses Straw to Build This Week's Greenhouse for $500.

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Ferd forwarded this: Earthquake in Tibet – Amazing Photo Gallery

"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods of which your fathers served, or gods...in whose land ye dwell: but I, and mine house, will serve the Lord." - Joshua 24:15

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Sir,
I have a secure retreat with a hidden cache that I visit very infrequently. I plan to keep half of my guns there. What is the best way to long term (3-5+ years between checks) store firearms? Specifically, Glock pistols and Springfield Armory M1A rifles. This system will be shared with others who have some other pieces (M1911s and AR-15s), but, as they are not the agreed upon group [standard] arms, they are less of a concern from a standard preservation system standpoint. Light, humidity, and temperature can probably be regulated to whatever is necessary.

JWR Replies: The precautions that you need to take depend a lot on where you live. If you live in a high humidity climate, then you need to be particularly vigilant with your guns, magazines, and other tools. In essence: the higher the humidity, the greater the degree of protection required, and the greater the frequency of inspection for rust.

I generally recommend wearing lightweight cotton gloves when you do your gun maintenance. This is particularly important if you have sweaty hands. My college roommate was notorious for inducing rust on guns because of this, and he has always had to take special precautions.

A light coat of gun oil such as Rem Oil will suffice in dry climate. Although exotic lubricants such as Break Free CLP. are great for lubricating, in my experience, they leave so little residue that they are actually inferior to traditional gun oils for preventing rust. In damp climates, I recommend Birchwood Casey Barricade (formerly sold under the product name "Sheath".) Rem Oil and Barricade are both available from a number of Internet vendors including Amazon.com and Brownell's.

For truly long term storage, all metal parts (inside and out) especially the bore, chamber, and breech face should get a coating of grease. There is always the tried-and-true USGI "Grease, Rifle". (This product name was humorously spoken "Grease Comma Rifle" by American soldiers for many years, before the advent of the M16. It is the correct grease to use on an M14 or M1A's bolt roller, and on the bolt's "hump") While "Grease, Rifle" will suffice for long term gun storage, I prefer Rust Inhibitive Grease (RIG), which is available from a number of Internet vendors including Brownell's. Even though you will know how the gun was treated before storage, someone else in your family might not. I therefore strongly recommend attaching a special warning note: "Warning: grease coating--bore, chamber and bolt face! Remove grease before firing!!!"

You extra magazines and spare gun parts should be stored inside a humidity-controlled gun vault (with a 120 VAC dehumidifier rod) or in sealed ammo cans with a large packet of silica gel desiccant. These items probably won't need more than light coat of oil and annual inspection. Any larger quantities of magazines that are stored outside of your vault in non-airtight containers should probably be rubbed down with RIG, and inspected more often. In most cases this requires disassembling magazines, to get at their innards. OBTW, even if a magazine is made of polymer and has a plastic follower and floorplate, don't forget that its spring needs rust protection!

James,

I found this article interesting: Professional Gang On Burglary Spree In Westchester. The homeowners spend so much money on their houses (prices start at $600,000) but fail to install any kind of security system.

The other thing I thought about while reading this is that there are people who don't take the threat of gangs seriously during a TEOTWAWKI event. Yet here is a professional gang breaking into affluent homes during 'peaceful' times. What do people think these gangs will be like when there's no electricity? No grocery store? No fuel?

The mantra is as always: hope, and pray, for the best but prepare for the worst. - JB

EMB sent us this: Bank for International Settlements: Brace for Impact

Items from The Economatrix:

Markets Could Be Derailed Again, Warns Soros

New Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Rise By 24,000

Bernanke: US Unemployment Likely to Remain High During "Recovery"

Going For Broke In L.A.?

SEC Accuses Goldman Sachs of Defrauding Investors

Stocks Tumble as Goldman Charged with Civil Fraud

Impact of Volcanic Ash Surfacing for US Businesses

The Latest Friday Follies: Regulators Shutter 5 Banks; Total for 2010 Now 47

Housing Construction Points to Market Recovery

Michael M. suggested this from Popular Mechanics: Extreme Building Codes: Protect Your Home From Natural Disasters

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Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit mentioned this: Edible Vertical Garden.

"As the touchstone tries gold, so gold tries men." - Chilo of Sparta (Chilon)

Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

I’m hoping that by sharing my experience, I can provide information that can help others in similar situations. When uninformed people think of a “survivalist”, I am most definitely not what comes to mind. I’m a twenty-four year old female, who wears makeup, has several pairs of comfortable (thrift store) designer jeans and a Creative Writing education from Johns Hopkins University. I have four cats, and live in a tiny inexpensive apartment in North Carolina. However, little do they know, my education hasn’t simply been gained from traditional schooling.

About two years ago, I found that it was getting much more difficult to pay the bills. The financial situation was steadily declining, and my tip-based income was definitely suffering. I moved to North Carolina in hopes of grasping the last threads of an economy that was doomed for difficulty. I began working as a freelance writer, writing on topics from everything from “How to Build a Windmill” to medical articles on diabetes.

However, this still didn’t seem to cover all of the bills. I hired on as a waitress, but found a lack of customers in a struggling economy. I had several credit cards from my financially irresponsible youth, which were all deferred to huge payments. I took out a loan to stop the bill collectors from calling, then defaulted on the payments in favor of paying rent. I sold my jewelry, DVDs, electronics and other items just to stay afloat. I reluctantly cashed in my stash of silver and vintage coins, which I had been dutifully saving since I was a little girl.

However, my story isn’t simply full of hardship and sacrifice. My experience being consistently broke has taught me innumerable lessons that I may not have learned otherwise. When I couldn’t afford to buy dish soap, I made my own with baking soda and borax. I mended my own clothes with needle and thread, my clumsy stitches gradually becoming less lumpy. I made chicken soup from boiling discarded chicken bones. I grew bread starter out of flour and warm water to make sourdough bread. I sprouted alfalfa and broccoli seeds in my kitchen, in a small sprouting kit I received as a Christmas present. I made my first-ever batch of applesauce from scratch, and started a small “peasant garden” in recycled plastic containers by my windows. I traded yard work for fresh chicken eggs from a neighbor, also gaining friendly smiles and a surprising amount of respect.

There are a few important items that have survived with me in my southern ‘adventure’. I have a Ruger .22 rifle with a zoom scope, and a banana magazine that holds 17 cartridges. I know it may not be enough if I needed to protect myself, but my optimism tells me "It’s something, at least!" I also have a small “Get out of Dodge” duffel bag stashed in my linen closet. It has a small camp stove, Datrex emergency food bars, a water filter, a small medical kit and a 2-person tent. I’m hoping to save up enough to renew my “Wilderness First Aid” certification from the Red Cross in a few weeks. At some point, I want to get some real training with a rifle, and begin saving up enough to increase my very small stash of ammo. I also hope to purchase a long-term supply of storage food, as well as additional supplies for my “Bug-out-Bag”.

I’ve been a long-term reader of SurvivalBlog, reading articles about elaborate water filtration systems, independent power storage, purchasing gold/silver, constructing nuclear bunkers, etc. However, there’s also information for people like me, which I truly do appreciate. I am determined to survive, even if my income remains sub-poverty level. I will continue to learn from my experiences, without relying on government handouts or welfare payments. I will become educated in resilience, continuing to slowly build my set of skills and supplies until I am confident that I could survive a TEOTWAWKI situation.
I know that for this writing contest, I am supposed to focus on practical skills that can be of use to others. I also know that many SurvivalBlog readers are wonderful people with incredibly useful talents, and knowledge that far surpasses my own. However, for people in situations similar to mine, who are scraping by each month, I’d like to offer some information that I hope will be helpful.

Making Bread Starter

This is actually incredibly easy, though it takes about a week for your bread starter to “mature”. Find a container (preferably glass), I find that a wide-mouth canning jar seems to work pretty well. You can also use glass jars from mayonnaise, honey, jam or other grocery items – Just be sure you wash them thoroughly! The cost of the finished bread loaf recipe is around $1 - $1.50, depending on the flour, salt, sugar (or honey) and oil you use.

Now, the starter recipe – 1 cup of warm water, 1 cup (preferably wheat) flour. That’s it! Blend the mixture thoroughly, cover loosely (air needs to be able to get in/out) and place in a warm area – around 70-80 degrees (temperatures of 100+ degrees will kill your starter). I put my starter on top of the fridge, since that’s where the warm-air vent is. Don’t forget to feed your starter. Feeding your starter simply involves pouring out half of your starter mixture, and adding ½ cup of flour, and ½ cup of warm water. You need to do this every 24 hours.

Your starter is done when it has a bubbly froth on top. It also should have a beer-ish aroma. This usually happens after about 4-7 days, depending on how warm you kept your mixture. After your starter is done, you’re ready to turn it into bread. Here’s the recipe I follow. I like to add dried rosemary and a bit of honey to this recipe, I think it goes nicely with the sourdough-ish taste.

Cheap Dish/Laundry Soap

I’ve found that Borax is an extremely versatile an inexpensive washing aid. You can use this recipe to make regular dish soap, automatic dishwasher soap, or even laundry detergent. The cost of this recipe is less than $1.

• 1 Cup Borax (available at most grocery stores)
• 1 Cup Baking Soda
• 1 Tablespoon Salt
• 1 Gallon Water (for Laundry Soap)
• 2 Cups Water (for Reg. Dish Soap)
• You can also mix in some bar-soap shavings, if you want to give your recipe a small boost. I find that just the soda+borax+salt mixture works in automatic dishwashers, with vinegar added to help reduce spotting. I’d recommend storing this mixture in a glass jar, only adding water when you use it for dishes/laundry/etc.

Chicken-Bone Soup

You’d be surprised at how many people throw out their chicken bones, without realizing how useful they can be in making delicious soup stock. The cost of chicken-bone soup is virtually $0.00 (since you are using waste-bits), except for the cost of any beans/vegetables/seasonings that you want to add.

After a chicken dinner, instead of throwing the bones in the trash, put them in a sizable metal pot that has a lid. Fill the pot completely with water, since much of the water will evaporate during the boiling process. You can add a small amount of salt and other seasonings if you like. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. You should cook until the remaining meat falls off the bones (usually about 5-6 hours). Be sure to keep an eye on the water level, as it can evaporate quickly if you don’t have a lid.

Strain the broth with a pasta strainer or through cheesecloth. There may be a significant amount of chicken fat on the top of the broth, you can either skim it off or leave it on - it’s a matter of preference. I don’t like oily soup, so I usually skim it off.

Add salt, herbs, spices, onions, carrots, potatoes and beans if you’d like. I usually use green lentils, since they are cheap ($15 for 10 lbs), and have around 18g of protein, 13g of fiber per cup. They also don’t have a “soak time”, so will soften up quickly when boiled.

Sprouts

Though starting a garden is a great way to get fresh vegetables, waiting in between harvest times can leave you without any fresh vegetables. To avoid purchasing any from the store, I like to start a few batches of alfalfa sprouts, several days apart. Alfalfa sprouts are quick-growing, and fairly nutritious. Also, sprouting is so easy! The cost of alfalfa seeds is usually around $6-7 for a 1lb bag. A whole pound of seeds lasts me for quite a while! Here’s a simple guide to starting sprouts. You will need:

• Alfalfa Seeds
• 1 Glass Mason Jar
• Cheesecloth
• A Rubber Band (or Twine)

Place around 2-3 Tablespoons of alfalfa seeds into the mason jar. Then, fill the jar with lukewarm (not hot!) water, and let the seeds soak. I find it’s best if they soak for around 4-6 hours. Cover the top of the jar with the cheesecloth and rubber band. Strain the soak water out, then shake the seeds so that they stick to the sides of the jar. Place the jar in a sunny area, and watch your sprouts grow! They should be ready to eat in about three days. It’s best to water them (fill the jar with water and strain it out) around twice per day.

I’d just like to mention that the “soak water” from alfalfa seeds is also full of nutrients. I sometimes make iced tea out of it, which is a great energizer on a hot day. You don’t necessarily have to use your soak water, but since I suppose I have a “poverty mentality”, I like to use every bit of everything!

Mr. Rawles:
I’ve seen a few posts mentioning Population Density maps, but what I’ve seen so far doesn’t let you really drill into a particular geographic region.

Webfoot has population density maps (among other demographics) based on the 2000 census, and using Google Maps.

With webfoot you can drill down to a city level and get a good granular picture of an area, instead of inferring density from a static, US-wide map. It can be a little slow to load, but the wait is worth it.

So if you’re like me, and trapped in the Northeast, you can use this map to find pockets of sparse population away from the Golden Hordes’ lines of drift…

Another great map from this site is from the 2008 election. There are various interesting overlays, such as the location of all Wal-Marts, should you wish to steer clear of those.

There is also an expert mode which allows you to get even more granular data about a particular region. You can slice-and-dice the data in several ways.

The data in these maps gives you a great, albeit disturbing, view into American demographics. Sadly, this site is best viewed in Internet Explorer – I had problems with navigation using other browsers.

Hope it helps. - "Equality"

Reader Steve C. sent this: Foreclosure Rates Surge, Biggest Jump in Five Years

The editors of The Daily Bell alerted us to this news article: Expert: Bear Market Can Last for Another Five Years

Ray T. suggested this: IMF Prepares For Global Cataclysm, Expands Backup Rescue Facility By Half A Trillion For "Contribution To Global Financial Stability"

Items from The Economatrix:

Rise in Jobless Claims Underscore Wobbly Recovery

Stocks Edge Higher on Mixed Reports, UPS Outlook

Low Stock Market Volume: It's Even Weaker Than You Think

Oil Jumps to $86 a Barrel

Treasurys Slump After Bernanke, Beige Book Bond Report

Oil Above $80 Could Stall Global Economic Recovery

T.B. mentioned that a map of natural hazard mortality in the United States has been produced. The map gives a county-level representation of the likelihood of dying as the result of natural events such as floods, earthquakes or extreme weather.

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The Deflation flags are still flying: Wal-Mart Bets on Reduction in Prices. (A hat tip to Chad S. for the link.)

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Reader Brian B. sent this from The Daily Iowan: Gun Law Stirs Controversy

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Sometimes, the small trend indicators can have great significance: U-Haul tracking data suggests more families migrating to Kentucky,
Vermont than other states. (A hat tip to GG for the link.)

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Shortage of Rare Earth Minerals May Cripple U.S. High-Tech, Scientists Warn Congress. (Our thanks to Eric S. for the link.)

"The art of taxation consists of so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing." - J.B. Colbert, French Statesman, circa 1665

Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

I've heard a lot of suggestions about bartering.  Some of them are good ideas, while others might be dangerous.  Bartering is just trading, either goods for goods, goods for services, or services for services.

First of all, we need to ask why we are bartering at all.  If we need to barter, it is probably because we need (or just want) something we don't have, and someone else needs or wants something that we have.  If something isn't exchanged by both parties, then it's essentially a begging or charity situation.

It is best to put yourself in a position where you don't need to barter at all.  Have everything you need.  If you don't have enough food, water, shelter, weapons, medical supplies, communications equipment, gardening supplies, energy, transportation, books, tools, or skills, then you need to get those first!  Try to prepare yourself to the point that you have enough for charity.

None of us can be totally prepared as an individual.  Very few of us can be totally prepared as a family.  Even few multi-family groups will have everything they will ever need.  This is why you will need to prepare for bartering.

Ideally you want to be prepared enough that you don't need to barter for tangible items (food, weapons, etc.).  It is very difficult, however, to have all the skills you might need.  Some of the skills you may have to barter for might include medical, veterinarian, electrical, mechanical, machinist, or heavy labor.  Those first skills I mention can take years of training and practice to become proficient.  The need for those skills are probably obvious.  The last one, heavy labor, might not be considered a “skill”, but clearly it isn't something you can store up for years.  Labor help might certainly be needed by the weak or elderly, but even a strong young family might need help with a bigger project (large crops, digging an irrigation system, constructing a building, cutting wood, etc.).

Now that you know why you might need to barter, the question becomes what do you use for barter?  A skill is a very valuable thing to have.  As I have said, for most people, skills are hard to store for a rainy day.  And if you are the one with a valuable skill, it takes no room for you to store it.  And, when you give your skill to someone, you still have it when you leave.  Most of us, however, will be trading something tangible for a skill or for something tangible.  Think of tangibles you can get now, that might be valuable during TEOTWAWKI, that store well, cost little, and can be hard to make.

I strongly suggest that the primary item you store for bartering is food.  Look at almost any big disaster, or the lives of people in Third World countries.  Food is generally the most sought after item.  Use your head when you barter with food.  Don't do anything to give the impression that you have lots of it.  You may want to act like it is your very last meal and you're only trading it away out of desperation.  You don't want someone coming by later and taking the rest of your food by force.

Other items I would suggest are lighters, matches, toilet paper, feminine protection,  duct tape, razors,  soap, lithium batteries, aluminum foil, coffee, small bottles of drinking alcohol, and cigarettes.  Those last items may be very desirable to those with addictions, even if you don't use them yourself.  Fuel might also be used for barter, but its bulk, hazards, and shorter shelf life might make it hard to store enough to spare any for barter.

Generally, you should probably not barter your own firearms and ammunition for other goods.  First of all, if you're trading your firearms away, it must mean you didn't store enough of something else.  Extra guns and ammo can be expensive.  Use some of that money to get more food and other supplies so you are less likely to need to barter in the first place.  And, the price of a gun can buy an awful lot of the other bartering items I mentioned.  My second thought would be concern that the gun or ammo would be used against you or your family.  If you're willing to trade a gun to someone, it should be someone you would trust with your gun at any time.  I might barter a gun in exchange for a service, or barter to someone who already has a gun.  If you trade it to the wrong person, you might truly be at the loosing end of the deal.

Don't get me wrong.  You need plenty of guns and ammo for yourself, your family, and maybe some spares.  My plans, generally, don't include using them for barter.  You definitely don't want to be in a position of having to barter to get a gun.

If you notice, I haven't mentioned water as a bartering item.  That's because I think you should not barter with water.  First of all, you should have planned well enough that you will not have to go to someone else for your water.  And, if you have water to barter with, then you can afford to give it away to someone in need.  I think nobody should be deprived of water if it's available.  If you have the only water hole in 50 square miles, then share!  It's just the right thing to do.  Water is more replaceable.  It can fall from the sky, food generally doesn't.

After you get your bartering supplies in order (remember, get your personal supplies in order first), then you should make a list showing what items you are willing to barter away, and how many of those items you're willing to get rid of.  At the end of the list, you should make some notes telling why you decided what items are to be bartered and why.  If you're not around to make the bartering decisions, the list can be a great benefit to whomever is bartering.

Some great tips on how to actually barter can be found in Jim's book, "How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It".  Check it out. [JWR Adds: I also wrote some advice on bartering strategies, and that 2008 article is available in SurvivalBlog's free archives.]

So, plan ahead.  Be smart about who you barter with.  Store enough supplies for yourself, for charity, and for safe bartering.

This tiny knife is a very durable piece of hardware.

Construction is of steel, with a hard phosphate or oxide finish. The pivot is adjustable with a spanner wrench, very smooth and has slick bushings. The lock is of the rotating handle design, with strong pins to hold the blade rigid when open. The handles swing easily open or closed, and remain in place in the hand without slipping.

The finish survived being dropped on a tile floor unmarked. The handle did open a fraction—the detent is fairly light.

As can be seen from the photos of the knife, it’s very small open and closed, with a blade about an inch long. This model has one side serrated and one plain, in AUS8 steel. The serrations are surprisingly fine with good geometry to cut rather than drag.

The serrated side was able to saw through an electrical cord in few strokes, with no damage to the teeth. The plain edge cut a 3/8” bevel all the way around a firewood log and still shaved hair. I jabbed the point in and bent until it popped a small divot of wood out, without damaging the tip at all. This was a fairly brief test, but the knife still looks brand new after it.

The design is similar to the OSS Thumb Dagger, and that is the best and most comfortable grip to use to hold it (See photos). It excels at chores such as opening packages and cutting cord, and easily stabs containers open. A variety of tests were conducted and it was still new looking and sturdy, and still shaving sharp. No tests were conducted on metal containers yet.

The knife also has a lanyard/key ring, and when folded is about the size of most common keys and keychain tools, so is very discreet for carry.

For those who prefer other blade designs, the company offers a flat chisel and hooked cutter “CopTool” for seatbelts and such, the “WrightKnife” that is single edged with a contour for the thumb, the “RhinoKnife” with a caping blade with gut hook, the “TalonKnife” with what appear to be line and cord cutters built in, and the “Kirkidashi Knife” that is a miniature damascus tanto. Chinese manufacture is quite standard in the blade industry anymore, but all are designed by well-known American bladesmiths, built under American license. The workmanship seems quite sound.

These would make great small knives for pocket carry, or as emergency tools for the vehicle. They’re small enough to carry in shorts or even a swimsuit pocket, or to keep in a vehicle console with a lanyard for easy access.

Most models retail at $34.95 and will undoubtedly be less expensive through most retailers.

GG sent this: Pray For Inflation -- It's Our Only Hope. [JWR's Comment: Well, its the government's only hope. For the Citizenry, mass inflation will be wealth destruction. As I've noted before, inflation is essentially a hidden from of taxation.]

Reader CZD sent this item: The Dow at 11,000 is Misleading. (CZD warns that he expects there will be multiple dips. I concur. This "recession" is far from over. I stand by my assertion, that we are actually in the early stages of of depression.)

Items from The Economatrix:

The Dow's Up But Trades are Scarce, Worrying Bulls

Jim Sinclair: Bank Prohibits Bullion and Cash in Safety Deposit Boxes

PIMCO's Bill Gross Frantically Dumping Treasuries, Thinks US Interest Rates Will Soar

Gas Prices are Up, But is That a Good Thing?

SurvivalBlog's Editor At Large Michael Z. Williamson keyed in on this article: BOB, America’s Biggest Sodium Sulfur Battery, Powers a Texas Town

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Titus suggested this population density map as a good starting point for looking for retreat locales.

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H.A.H. suggested this WorldNetDaily article: County to feds: They're our roads! Supervisors vote to reopen routes hit by BLM closure

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Randy F. liked this piece, by my hero Walter E. Williams: Parting Company.

"Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented danger, the solution was ignorance. To me, it always seemed that the solution had to be wisdom. You did not refuse to look at danger, rather you learned how to handle it safely." - Isaac Asimov,"The Caves of Steel", p. viii

I just heard from my editor at the Plume Division of Penguin Books that another publisher has purchased the rights to produce a Bulgarian language edition of my non-fiction book "How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It". As Alice said: "It just gets curiouser and curiouser. "

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Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

When I think on the “Bug out Bag” I am not thinking of a basic survival kit. The survival kit is designed to be small, portable, and with you whenever you venture out into the woods. The bug out bag is a larger version of the same but designed for a totally different scenario. When you know you are going to be on your own for an undetermined amount of time.
First off it will be larger than a survival kit; usually a small backpack or duffle will suffice to carry all you will need for an extended stay away from civilization. It will also need to carry the basics in shelter, first aid, clothing, food and cooking, as well as means to procure food from natural resources. With this in mind, let’s list the things necessary to any kit and then you can tailor it to your specific needs.
Shelter:  One can do well with a tarp and some imagination. I would recommend one about 10’x 8’ as a minimum. There are also small camping tents that are very roomy and light weight that added with a tarp would make a very comfortable camp. Don’t forget a bedroll or a couple heavy wool blankets.
First Aid: In any situation one must be capable of dealing with physical injuries from minor cuts and scrapes to sprains and broken bones. A good commercial first aid kit will cover most of these as well as contain a booklet on how to treat these conditions I consider this as an essential.
Also don’t forget a supply of medications you are taking, as well as a supply of throat lozenges, pain relievers (advil or tylenol), and yes, a small bottle of whiskey or other strong spirits can come in very handy as both an anesthetic and antiseptic.
Clothing: Depending on where you live and where you plan to go the proper clothes are essential. I would recommend a set of clothes that can be layered and rely on natural fibers like wool to help retain heat in cold and cool in hot weather. ‘Nuff said.
Food and water:  First, you can’t carry enough. I would stock up on MREs . Being light weight and easy to fix carrying enough to last a week or two should not take up too much room in your pack. Water is heavy, but necessary carry as much as you can and also carry a water purification system be it tablets or a filtration system. For cooking a small Boy Scout cook kit is great it contains a pot, plate, cup, and a fry pan that nests together and takes up very little space. Also don’t forget the basics like dry flour, sugar, tea bags, salt, pepper, hot sauce, dry beans, corn meal, oil, et cetera.
And lastly we come to the means of obtaining food in the wild.
The first thing that comes to mind to me is a small telescopic spinning rod and reel with a small box filled with a few lures, hooks and sinkers. You should be able to find bait and be able to fish the local streams and rivers in your area. The next thing I would have is a book showing the edible plants growing in your area.  And lastly, choosing a firearm.  This has been covered by so many different writers that it would be an individual’s choice of the best to bring. I will stick my neck out and say that my Ruger 1022 .22 rifle, NEF .410 shotgun, and my Ruger .357 magnum Blackhawk, or a smoothbore flintlock musket and a .44 cap and ball revolver would fill most of my foraging and protection needs.
Along with a couple flashlights, matches, lighters, extra cordage, your basic survival kit and a healthy dose of common sense you should do well wherever you happen to take off for.
There is nothing wrong with being prepared.  For it is better to have something and not need it than to need and not have it.

It is noteworthy that the Federal Debt chart has again turned sharply upward, to nearly an upright spike, rising to 90%+ of GDP. This level of Federal indebtedness had only one precedent: the massive spending that was needed to finance World War II. The current massive over-spending on the Mother of All Bailouts (MOAB) can't go on indefinitely. At some point, the piper must be paid. In the long term, gross overspending will have some major implications for U.S. Treasury paper, and inevitably for the U.S. Dollar as a currency unit.

I should mention that in 1945 (the peak of the last indebtedness spike), the U.S. dollar was still a net lender nation and our currency was still redeemable--by the citizenry in real silver coinage, and by foreign governments in gold. But since 1985, we have been a net debtor nation, and since 1971, the "dollars" in circulation have been backed only by the hot air that emanates from the District of Criminals. My advice is that henceforth that you don't believe in any of the following:

• Empty political promises of "Change",
• Hopes of "winning big" in the lottery,
• Debased and irredeemable currencies,
• "The check is in the mail"
• The long term prospects for governments with bankrupt treasuries,
• Unfunded pension plans, or
• The Tooth Fairy

In many ways the United States is in worse shape than Greece or Iceland--the so-called "basket cases" of Europe. This is because our long-term unfunded obligations (most notably Federal pensions, Social Security, interest on the national debt, and now socialized medicine) are proportionately much larger than theirs. These obligations can be measured somewhere north of $65 Trillion. There is no way, whatsoever, that these obligations can ever be fully met, given the demographics of our aging population. As my maternal great-grandfather was fond of saying in his intentionally fractured Spanish: "No ay ningun posibilidad!" ("There ain't no way!") Even if personal incomes were taxed at a rate of 100% in the year 2050, it wouldn't cover these obligations. So there are only two ways out for Schumer and Company: Either the programs will have to be drastically reduced, or the payments will be made in greatly inflated dollars. I suspect the latter will be more politically expedient.

In the long run, despite the purported "good intentions" of those controlling monetary and fiscal policies, the U.S. dollar is simply doomed. Therefore, I sincerely hope that you, dear readers, are hedging into tangibles! What is in our future? In a word: Inflation.In fact, there is already evidence of inflation getting underway. Perhaps in a few years, we may see sights like this -- a sign posted at a public restroom on the Zimbabwe/South Africa border.

I've said it before, but I must repeat it. To protect your savings from the ravages of inflation, you'll need tangibles, tangibles, tangibles! - J.W.R.

James Wesley:
I've been researching family history in Ireland during the 1845 famine and found this interesting online book that describes the food riots, workhouses, rampant death and illness, and other aspects of life during an intense social upheaval. It may be enlightening:

The Famine in Dungarvan: The Poor Law, Famine and Aftermath in Dungarvan Union

Thanks, - Chris M.

Jim;
In the article, "Sustainable Rural Cabins", under the headline, "Designing the Outer Periphery", the author wrote, "Evergreen windbreaks should be planted to block winter winds".

That works fine if the evergreens, (or other trees), you plant and the way you group them is consistent with the way the same trees occur naturally in the area. For example, if white pines grow naturally in the woods around where you are establishing your homestead, then you can plant more white pines and they won't be noticed. But if you plant, for example, blue spruce where none normally occur, you can see them from a distance, and any observant woodsman will know that humans are there. Camouflage includes becoming unnoticed. If you plant not appropriate species of trees or bushes in an area, you might as well put up a billboard that shouts, "Here I Am!. If you are trying to conceal your whereabouts, remember to observe nature, work with nature, be consistent with nature. - Jim Fry, Curator, Museum of Western Reserve Farms & Equipment

Kevin S. recommended this from the Global Guerillas Journal: What Makes a Home Valuable?

CBO chief says debt 'unsustainable'. (Out thanks to reader S.M. for the link.)

GG and Chad S. both flagged this: Gold hits record high for British investors; The price of gold has risen to an all-time high in sterling and euro terms.

Also from GG comes this video clip: Meredith Whitney: Housing Will Fall Again

S.M. sent this: Is the World's Second Biggest Economy On the Ropes?

Items from The Economatrix:

Stocks Trade Mixed After Alcoa Results Fall Short

February Trade Deficit Increases to $39.7 Billion

Oil Price Slide Continues for Fifth Straight Day

Pensions: The Untold Crime of the Century

The Power of Gold

With 1 in 5 Americans Out Of Work, Obama Issues One Million Green Cards

A Mortgage Crisis Picturebook Even a Progressive Could Understand

Commentary from Dan Denninger: Did The Fed Just (Surreptitiously) Bail Out Europe?

Reader Lee C. sent this: In California, Louder Calls to Prepare for Quakes

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Reader RBS mentioned a 2008 news story that was recently highlighted in The Survival Spot Blog. This illustrates how even fairly large communities can "disappear", with terrain masking and some rudimentary camouflage: Lost middle-class tribe's 'secret' eco-village in Wales spotted in aerial photograph taken by plane.

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The WRSA says: 19 April 2010: Bring Your Sidearms and Longarms To The Banks of the Potomac

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From Brian B.: Cap and Trade: A License Required for Your Home.

"Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don't know when it's through if you are a crook or a martyr." - Will Rogers

I just heard that Jerry Pournelle's next Chaos Manor Reviews column includes a brief review of my latest non-fiction book "How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It". Most SurvivalBlog readers will of course recognize Jerry Pournelle as a co-author of the now-classic survivalist novel Lucifer's Hammer, a columnist for Survive magazine, and a key contributor to Mel Tappan's P.S. Letter. So I daresay that Pournelle's review means more to me than all of the other extant book reviews, combined!

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Today we present another entry for Round 28 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round will include:

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner's choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A HAZARiD Decontamination Kit from Safecastle.com. (A $350 value.), and D.) A 500 round case of Federal 5.56mm XM193 55 Grain FMJ ammo, courtesy of Sunflower Ammo. This is a $199 value, and includes free UPS shipping.

Second Prize: A.) A "grab bag" of preparedness gear and books from Jim's Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $400, and B.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A copy of my "Rawles Gets You Ready" preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing, and B.) a Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.)

Round 28 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical "how to" skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

I came up with the idea for this treatise several weeks ago, but never made it to the point of putting it into print until the recent article on the Saiga family of weapons urged me to move forward.  As most readers of the Blog and all owners of "Boston's Gun Bible" know, the Main Battle Rifle (MBR) is the ideal foundation for the citizen’s defense of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Boston’s does a great job of enumerating the pros and cons of the various rifles, and based on his evaluations, my associates and I chose to go the M1A route.  Recently, though, we’ve changed the group standard, and I’d like to share why with the blog readers.

We’ve recently switched the group standard to the HK family of roller locked rifles and clones thereof.  Specifically, the reason that made this switch possible is the PTR91 family of rifles.  Original HK91s are priced beyond their utility value due to rarity, and previously, building a rifle from a parts kit was hampered by the lack of quality, in-spec receivers for the builds.  PTR’s receivers are truly in-spec, and form the basis for a great platform, to the point that almost all other current builders are using their receivers for their products.  Rifles now are down around the $1,100 price point, with some caveats, which is very reasonable for a high quality MBR.  I would like to explain some of the “goods” which swayed our thinking, as well as some of the “others” that made it hard to seal the deal for us, and the mitigation factors that we’ve arrived at.  In no particular order, here they are:

Cost.  The going rate on a decent M1A or FAL clone these days has been headed north.  The basic PTR rifle, the PTR91F, or an equivalent build from a parts kit based on a PTR receiver, will run a little over $1,000 from CDNN and other vendors.  Apart from the 7 US parts required for 922(r) compliance, most of the internals will be either original HK G3 parts, or contract parts made of German steel on German machinery in Pakistan or by FMP, which are available inexpensively, thus the low cost for a fine rifle.  A new member to the group can swing this easier than the $1,400 to $1,900 for the various Springfield Armory M1A variants.  The savings only gets better when we get to accessories and spares.

Due to the switches by many of the countries that employed the G3 to 5.56  military weapons, there are currently large amounts of spares and accessories available very inexpensively.  The biggest bargain of these is full capacity magazines.  Used, HK German manufactured, 20 round aluminum magazines for the G3 family of weapons can be had for as little as 97 cents each in perfectly functional condition.  Depending on the vendor you may find as many as 5 or 10 out of 100 that have dents or are otherwise suspect, but these can then be used as spare followers, springs, and floorplates.  Most of my batches of used surplus had no bad magazines at all.  In many of the batches that I’ve ordered, I’ve received up to 10 or 15% new, in VCI wrap magazines.  If you want to eliminate the chance, $6-8 will get you new magazines.  Steel magazines are available for about $3 each, although most of these are in rougher, but functional shape.  Spare parts and accessories are available from RTG Parts, HKParts.net, and HKSpecialist.  RTG has both original HK and POF (Pakistani Ordnance Factory--not to be confused with POF-USA) G3 parts, so you can find spares there much more cheaply, in general, but both of the other sites have high quality and original HK parts, and sometimes better prices.  Service from both HKParts and HKSpecialist is lightning fast, and all three companies are great to deal with.  In any case, if you shop wisely, a complete doomsday spares kit with everything from spare rollers, locking pieces, ejectors, extractors, sears, hammers, springs, pins, recoil rods, buffers, sights, stock sets, trigger packs, lowers, cocking handles, etc, can be had for a very reasonable price.  If you live on the southern border of the US, or anywhere near it, you probably already know that the Mexican army still uses G3s, so there is also a potential future source of spares and compatibility there.

Reliability.  There is an item of contention here with the barrel flute specifications and ammunition sensitivities, which we’ll cover in “others”, but for basic design, it is definitely a “good”.  The HK roller locking delayed blowback action is beautiful in its simplicity.  It doesn’t rely on any sort of gas system at all, so there’s nothing in that vein to fail.  The system is extremely dirt tolerant, and proper flutes are somewhat self cleaning.  Even if you dip a round in thick mud and toss it in the chamber, (not recommended, however) the firing of that round will tend to clean out the chamber.  Since it is recoil impulse and not gas expansion that powers the action, powder burn rate is not an issue as it is with the M1A.  There aren’t a whole lot of things that break with this rifle.  Out of all my spare parts, I’ve never used any of them, although someday, I’m sure I’ll lose or bend an extractor spring during detail cleaning.  The current Thompson Center-made PTR barrels are of conventional construction, very accurate, and will probably last 8,000 rounds or so as with any conventional 7.62 barrel, but several sources of surplus and US made hammer forged barrels are available, which may easily double that number.  Rim Country Manufacturing (www.rimcountrymfg.com) makes a phenomenal selection of hammer forged barrels with correct flutes and us-made compliance parts for the entire roller locked series of weapons.  In general, the quality of the PTR rifles is very, very good, and the welds compare favorably with the original HK91 I had as a frame of reference.

Sights.  The HK battle sights are not generally hailed as the best out there, a distinction generally reserved for the M1A sight.  The M1A sight is indeed a piece of artistry, and I was a huge fan until I saw real combat.  Although the M1A sight is still a great piece of kit, I learned from practical application that target identification is the limiting factor in many armed engagements.  I have never fired upon anyone that presented a full “B” silhouette to me.  People tend to hide behind stuff when you shoot at them, or when they expect you to shoot at them, and after about 400 yards, you’re a better man than me if you can pick out a head and shoulder sticking out from behind a rock with an AK with enough fidelity to precisely engage with iron sights.  Optics and the single focal plane that they bring to the fight are a huge force multiplier when you get out there in range.  At 400 and in, the HK sights are very good.  The 100m “notch” is very fast for close range engagements and low light.  The apertures create an odd magnification effect that makes it easier for me to form a clear sight picture.  Although they are only graduated to 400m, it’s easy to get hits at 500 by holding at the top of the head of your intended target.

Modularity Across the Family.  The entire line of HK roller locked weapons is now available in clone form from one maker or another.  Many of the parts work across the spectrum of rifles.  Century, although having a bad history with roller locked builds, is now producing 93 (roller locked 5.56) clones that are generally very good, and they are priced at under $600.  Pick one that you can measure the bolt gap on, and you’re ahead of the game in picking a winner.  Vector makes very good 93 clones for under $1,000, and you can get parts kits for a build for under $400 from the flood of Malaysian surplus on the market.  Although 93 magazines are pricey, Special Weapons/Coharie makes guns and receivers that take AR magazines, and several good HK smiths can modify any of the guns to take AR-15 mags.  Coharie is selling out all their remaining 9mm clones, so an HK94 or MP5 clone can be had for around $1,000. MKE is also importing Turkish contract 9mm clones which are getting great reviews, as well.   9mm isn’t much of a long range round, but for training youngsters with little recoil on a weapon system that will translate well to the full size rifle while still possessing more “oomph” than a .22LR trainer, the MP5 family is valuable.  Korean contract MP5 mags that work very well are available for $15 each from HK specialist.  The nice thing about all of these weapons is that with the exception of the ejectors, which are caliber specific, and a reduced power hammer spring for the 9mms, the lower receivers are interchangeable.  All fire control parts swap freely back and forth, with very few exceptions.  PTR is now also making the PTR-32, which accepts AK mags and fires the 7.62x39 round if you want to have a capability to fire the Russian round and still interchange with your main battery.  In addition to the differing calibers in the family, each is available in a variety of configurations.  Without getting into the 51 series and its 9-inch .308 barrel, you can get everything from a 12.7” G3k copy (requires a custom rebarreling) to a 16 inch carbine, to the full 18” rifle, on up to the MSG clone with a fluted barrel, Magpul adjustable stock, and welded-on Picatinny rail for optics. [JWR Adds: In the U.S., rifles with barrel length s under 16" require a $200 Federal tax stamp as "short barreled rifles (SBRs.)

Optics.  The original HK claw mounts are still available, and work well on the PTR series with either STANAG rings or with a Picatinny rail adapter, and you can pick up an original Hensoldt scope with mount for under $400.  MFI also makes a great low-profile mount that has been newly improved with steel claws.  It is a Picatinny-compatible rail that is low enough for iron sight usage with it attached, so there is no need to ever remove it.  They are available from hkparts.net and other vendors for around $125.  PTRs also now come with an aluminum forend onto which picatinny rails are sold to easily screw on.  I’m not a big fan of hanging stuff off of a battle rifle, but a rail section on the bottom allows easy compatibility with standard bipods, and a vertical foregrip on the short models allows you to torque them down for faster follow up shots in close.

Information.  Everything you ever wanted to know about the roller locked series of HK-designed weapons and all their clones can be found on www.hkpro.com.  It’s a forum with a lot of knowledgeable folks who are more than willing to help, and the search function will answer most of your questions anyway.

And now, the “others”...

Manual of Arms.  I put this in “others” because it is different than many other rifles.  The forward cocking handle and “HK slap” take a bit of getting used to, and the lack of a last-round bolt hold-open is seen as a handicap by some.  I don’t think it’s a big factor.  I tend to do tac reloads, anyway, so the gun never runs dry, and in high stress situations, most folks try to pull the trigger anyway when the bolt is locked back on rifles so equipped.  The forward location of the cocking handle allows for the non-firing hand to sweep the handle back on it’s way to the mag well, remove and replace the mag, then slap the cocking handle on its way back out to the forend, making for a relatively fast reload.  The ergonomics are difficult for those with small hands, although this is less of a factor if a paddle mag release is added, as was on the original G3.  With training, my mag changes are about the same with the HK series as with an M1A.  I’m still faster with an AR, but I don’t intend to be getting close enough for it to matter after TEOTWAWKI.

Trigger.  Most HK roller locked weapons have abominable triggers.  There isn’t much reason for this, though. The principles at work in the trigger pack are very similar to the M14 or Garand trigger.  Bill Springfield (www.triggerwork.net) will do a phenomenal job on the trigger for around $45 on any HK-type trigger pack.  I’ve been a gunsmith for many years, but with no experience with the weapon system, in about 2 hours, I had my first trigger pack down to 5.5 pounds and relatively crisp, and now I’m down to about an hour to get 4.5-6 depend